Behavioral Management clinical trials

Dental Anxiety Management by Behavioral Therapeutic Techniques Among Iraqi Adult Patients Seeking Private Dental Care

Dental anxiety considered as one of the weariest problems and disturbing problems with which the individual dentist has had to fight. Dental anxiety has been a major patient's complaint which interferes with different dental treatment. Therefore, dental anxiety may have a critical impact on the deterioration of oral health. It is a problem of many patients. Excessive dental anxiety will leads to bad oral health. It is estimated that about 36% of the world population are suffering from dental anxiety and 5- 15% of adults in developed countries suffer from severe anxiety to dental treatment. According to researchers, between 50% and 80% of adults in the United States have some degree of dental anxiety. In Saudi Arabia dental anxiety was found to be 50%. Very limited number of studies have been done in Iraq especially management of anxiety, for example in Baghdad, it was found that about 55% of study population had dental anxiety. Because of no studies have been conducted to determine the impact of dental anxiety management in Karbala city-Iraq, thus conducting such a study is timely and much needed to improve patient care. The goal of this clinical trial is to test the effectiveness of behavioral management technique on patients having different levels of dental anxiety, among Iraqi adult patients seeking private dental care in Karbala city. The main question it aims to answer is: Is dental anxiety management effective in decreasing dental anxiety levels among adult Iraqi patients seeking private dental care in Karbala city? Participants will be requested to fill the self-reported questionnaire paper for anxiety levels determination & sociodemographic factors. Researchers will use non-pharmacological behavioral therapeutic techniques including combination of cognitive behavioral therapy (distraction technique) and mindfulness therapy (relaxation breathing and muscle relaxation techniques) applied as one package. the patients with anxiety will be divided in to 2 groups; one group with applying intervention and the other group without applying intervention to see if the dental anxiety therapy is effective in decreasing dental anxiety level for anxiety patient. This study hypothesized that there is a significant difference in the changes of dental anxiety level between managed patients and not managed patients (between group) and (within group) between pre and post managed patients after three months follow up assessment.