Effect of Awareness and Reassurance on Anxiety of Dental Implant Candidates

Objectives: Dental anxiety can be potentially problematic. Anxiety must be controlled in highly anxious patients in order to ensure a smooth procedure and prevent potential complications. Awareness and reassurance are believed to be efficient for anxiety control in patients undergoing dental procedures especially dental implant treatment. This study sought to assess the effect of awareness and reassurance of patients undergoing dental implant treatment on their level of anxiety. Methods: In this experimental study, 40 dental implant candidates with a mean age of 37.5 years were selected and randomly assigned into two groups (n=20). Case group patients received awareness and reassurance through a standard interview while controls only received routine information. Level of anxiety of the patients was determined pre- and postoperatively using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). The anxiety scores of the patients in the two groups were statistically analyzed by Mann-Whitney U test. Results: The preoperative anxiety scores of cases and controls were not significantly different (54.73 vs. 57.55; P>0.05). However, the anxiety score of the case group was significantly lower than that of the control group postoperatively (52.30 vs. 60.64; P=0.004). Also, male patients had a significantly lower anxiety score than females (P<0.05). Conclusion: Awareness and reassurance through a standard interview can efficiently decrease the level of anxiety of dental implant candidates. Furthermore, female patients often experience higher level of anxiety than males.