The burden of disease of dental anxiety: generic and disease-specific quality of life in patients with and without extreme levels of dental anxiety

The aim of this study was to compare disease-specific (oral health-related) quality of life (OHRQoL), assessed using the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14), and generic (health-related) quality of life (HRQoL), assessed using the EuroQol5D (EQ-5D-5L), in patients with severe dental anxiety (who were visiting a centre for special care dentistry) with a control group from the general population. Seventy-six patients with severe dental anxiety [Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) score ≥ 13] were matched, according to age, gender, and socio-economic status, to a control group of 76 participants in a larger epidemiological study on oral health in the Netherlands (n = 1,125). The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare levels of HRQoL and OHRQoL in both groups. The total OHIP score (indicating lower OHRQoL) was higher for the patient group (10th percentile = 30.5; 90th percentile = 46.0) than for the control group (10th percentile = 1.0; 90th percentile = 14.5). The patient group showed higher scores on all seven OHIP domains. Lower utility scores were found in patients with severe dental anxiety (HRQOL: 10th percentile = 0.7; 90th percentile = 0.9) relative to the control group (HRQOL: 10th percentile = 0.9; 90th percentile = 1.0). A disease burden of 74,000 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) was calculated for the Netherlands. The findings of this study show differences between patients visiting a dental fear clinic and matched controls from the general population for both OHRQoL and HRQoL, indicating that having severe dental anxiety generates a significant burden of disease.

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