Overlap between dental anxiety and blood-injury fears: Psychological characteristics and response to dental treatment

The relationship between dental anxiety and blood/body injury (BI) fears was examined in a sample of 1420 adults. Based on their responses to two mail questionnaires, they were classified into one of four groups: Group 1—neither dentally anxious nor BI fearful; Group 2—BI fearful only; Group 3—dentally anxious only; Group 4—both dentally anxious and BI fearful. Overall, only 16% of dentally anxious subjects were BI fearful while 31.6% of those with high levels of BI fears were dentally anxious. While subjects in Group 2 were more fearful of dentistry than those in Group 1, they were substantially less so than subjects in Groups 3 and 4. Moreover, even BI stimuli in the dental setting evoked lower levels of anxiety for subjects in Group 2 compared to Groups 3 and 4. However, rates of fainting or near fainting experiences in the dental situation were similar for all three groups. Groups 3 and 4 were similar in terms of fear evoking stimuli and patterns of anxiety response. Subjects in Group 4 had more agoraphobic symptoms and social interaction fears and had higher scores on the Anxiety Sensitivity Index and Speilberger Trait Anxiety Index. This suggests that Group 4 is comprised of individuals who are more likely to be multiphobic and exhibit generalized anxiety states. Although BI fears are a significant component of dental anxiety, their overall contribution is relatively small.