[Dental anxiety and alexithymia; research on anxiety acquisition].

People with alexithymia have difficulty identifying and describing feelings, have little imagination and mental processes largely orientated towards facts and less towards inner experience. It occurs in about 1 in 10 people and therefore in the dental office, too. A positive association has been found between alexithymia and the development of dental anxiety.

[Diagnosis and treatment of dental anxiety].

Fear of dental treatment is a common phenomenon. Every oral health care provider will have to treat a patient with this fear one day. Adequate diagnostics are essential for a correct assessment of the level of fear and how an anxious patient can best be helped.

[Online survey on dental anxiety results].

In the months leading up to this special on 'dental anxiety', an online survey was conducted on various aspects of the treatment of anxious patients. This survey was completed by 128 people, of whom approximately one third were men and two thirds were women. The results show that more than half of the respondents feel they haven't learned enough about treating anxious patients during the training.

Shared Genetics of Temporomandibular Disorder Pain and Neck Pain: Results of a Twin Study.

Aims: (1) To examine the heritability of TMD pain and of neck pain; and (2) to estimate the potential overlap in genetic and environmental factors influencing TMD pain and neck pain.

Methods: Data from 2,238 adult female twins who completed a survey on TMD pain and neck pain were analyzed. The total variance of TMD pain and neck pain was decomposed into variance attributable to additive genetic effects and nonshared environmental effects.

[A study to determine possible success variables in the treatment of gag reflex patients].

A disproportionately sensitive gag reflex can hamper adequate dental treatment. Because an evidence-based treatment for this condition is lacking at this moment, a study of patients and success variables for the treatment was carried out. The study was based on the clinical records of and interviews with 40 people who had been treated in a Centre for Special Dental Care (CBT) because of extreme gag problems two years earlier.

[DSQ-13-youth: measuring instrument for patient satisfaction with dental attendance among adolescents, young adults and parents of young children].

The Dental Satisfaction Questionnaire (DSQ) is a questionnaire consisting of 31 items assessing patient satisfaction with dental attendance. By means of factor analysis (principal component analysis), the number of items of the DSQ was reduced to 13, which together constitute the DSQ-13-youth. The first objective was to investigate the psychometric properties of the DSQ-13-youth; the second was to compare the satisfaction scores on the various dimensions between and within subgroups (23-year-olds, 17-year-olds and parents of 5-year-olds).

[Disease burden of extreme treatment anxiety; quality of life for patients with and without extreme dental treatment anxiety].

In this study, a comparison was made between disease-specific (oral health-related) quality of life (OHQoL), measured with the OHIP-14 questionnaire, and generic (general health-related) quality of life (GHQoL), measured with the EQ5D-5L questionnaire, in patients with and without extreme dental treatment anxiety. A total of 76 patients who could not be treated due to extreme dental treatment anxiety were referred to a centre for special dentistry. These patients were matched, according to age, gender and socioeconomic status, with participants in an epidemiological study on oral health (n = 1125).

[Caries in deprived areas 2. Youngsters].

In the Netherlands, no epidemiologic data on the oral health of cultural groups of children and adolescents living in deprived areas are available. The aim of the present study was to obtain an impression of the amount of caries experience among poorly educated groups of youngsters in deprived areas, in comparison with a reference group of poorly educated youngsters from the cities of Alphen aan den Rijn, Gouda, 's-Hertogenbosch and Breda. 725 Poorly educated respondents participated in a clinical and sociological study.

Do traumatic events have more impact on the development of dental anxiety than negative, non-traumatic events?

The importance of exposure to traumatic events for the development of dental anxiety has not been investigated. The aim of the present study was to test the hypotheses that individuals who reported having been exposed to a traumatic event [that is, fulfilling Criterion A of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5), for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)] as the cause of their dental anxiety would report significantly higher levels of dental anxiety, typical trauma-related (PTSD) symptoms, and greater disturbance of memories involving these events than those who reported being exposed to non-traumatic events. Patients of a specialized dental fear clinic (n = 90) were divided into those who reported a traumatic event that initiated their dental trait anxiety and those who did not.

The factor structure of dental fear.

There is limited empirical information as to whether or how stimuli associated with dental fear can be classified into distinct subtypes. The purpose of the current study was to develop a descriptive framework for the classification of dental fear. Data were collected using a survey among Dutch twin families (n = 11,771).

[Caries in deprived areas 1. Adults].

In the Netherlands, little epidemiologic data is available on the oral health of the various cultural groups comprising the adult population living in deprived areas. The aim of an investigation carried out in 2013 was to obtain an impression of the extent of caries experience among less well-educated adults in deprived areas by comparison with a reference group of adults from the city of 's-Hertogenbosch. A total of 1,597 less well-educated respondents participated in this research.

[A PhD completed 8. Are extreme dental treatment anxiety, fainting or gagging separate or overlapping phenomena?].

Extreme dental treatment anxiety, fainting or gagging in the dentist's chair can seriously hinder a patient's dental treatment. While a series of widely diverse studies on extreme dental treatment anxiety have been carried out, less is known about gagging and fainting. The most important questions in this dissertation research were whether dental treatment anxiety ('stimuli') can be identified and whether dental treatment anxiety and fainting or gagging are separate or overlapping phenomena.

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.

Self-reported gagging in dentistry: prevalence, psycho-social correlates and oral health.

Although gagging has a profound effect on the delivery of dental care, it is a relatively under-investigated phenomenon. This study aimed to derive a prevalence estimate of gagging during dental treatment based on patient-reported information, to determine some socio-demographic and psychological correlates and to assess the relationship of gagging with self-reported oral health and avoidance of dental care. Data were collected with a survey among Dutch twin families (n = 11 771).

Comorbid disorders and sociodemographic variables in temporomandibular pain in the general Dutch population.

Aims: (1) To determine the prevalence of temporomandibular disorder (TMD)-pain complaints in the general Dutch population; (2) to investigate its relationship with age, sex, educational attainment, and country of birth; (3) to determine its association with other pain complaints; and (4) to determine whether there are TMD subgroups (ie, with regard to their sociodemographic variables) that are more vulnerable for comorbid pain complaints.

Methods: Data from two large-scale population studies were available: 975 randomly selected adults, who were interviewed by an examiner from the Institute for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), and 11,948 adults who were registered in the Netherlands Twin Register and responded to a survey questionnaire. Chi-squared tests and regression analyses were used to determine whether there were any associations between the presence of TMD pain and the various sociodemographic or comorbid variables.

[Treatment of a patient with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures].

A 36-year old man is referred to a centre for special dental care due to problems with treatability in the general dental practice and a deteriorated oral state. His behaviour is unpredictable due to the possible development of sudden changes in the patient's consciousness which are accompanied by severe aggression. The patient suffers from a conversion disorder, a serious mental disorder which expresses itself in his case with the occurrence of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures.

Comorbidity among multiple pain symptoms and anxious depression in a Dutch population sample.

Unlabelled: Most studies on pain focus on specific disorders, which makes it difficult to compare characteristics across different types of pain symptoms. In this large population-based study, we examine the prevalence and comorbidity patterns among pain symptoms across a wide range of anatomic sites (back, neck, head, abdomen, joints, chest, face, teeth, and "other") in relation to anxious depression and a range of demographic, health, and lifestyle variables. Self-report data were collected in 11,787 adult participants of The Netherlands Twin Registry (mean age 44.

Is dental phobia a blood-injection-injury phobia?

Background: Dental phobia is part of the Blood-Injection-Injury (B-I-I) phobia subtype of specific phobia within DSM-IV-TR. To investigate the conceptual validity of this classification, the purpose of the present study was to determine the co-occurrence of dental phobia, typical dental (and B-I-I related) fears, vasovagal fainting, and avoidance of dental care.

Method: Data were collected by an online survey in Dutch twin families (n = 11,213).

A review and meta-analysis of the heritability of specific phobia subtypes and corresponding fears.

Evidence from twin studies suggests that genetic factors contribute to the risk of developing a fear or a phobia. The aim of the present study was to review the current literature regarding twin studies describing the genetic basis of specific phobias and their corresponding fears. The analysis included five twin studies on fears and ten twin studies on specific phobias.

Oral health status, treatment needs, and obstacles to dental care among noninstitutionalized children with severe mental disabilities in The Netherlands.

The objective of this study was to assess the oral health status, treatment needs, and barriers to dental care of noninstitutionalized children in The Netherlands who have severe disabilities. The oral health status of 61 children (38% female; 4-12 years of age; M = 7.7, SD = 2.

[Post-academic specialties 9. Dental care of disabled children living at home].

The aim of this study was to identify possible problem areas regarding preventive selfcare and dental care for severely mentally retarded children living at home. The sample test comprised parents (n = 126) and dentists (n = 40) of children between the ages of 4 and 12 from 7 randomly selected daycare centres in The Netherlands, who were asked to fill out a questionnaire. Of the children 32% were found to receive no dental care at all, while among the children from ethnic minority groups this number exceeded 50%.