Dental Phobia Survey

[SallyB]

Hi,

My name is Sally and I'm currently in my third year of a Psychology degree at The University of Sheffield. My dissertation is about phobias - specifically about emetophobia, needle phobia, dental phobia, blood phobia and injury phobia - and I would be really grateful for any dental phobics who would take part in my survey. The study has been granted ethical approval from the Department of Psychology ethics committee, and I am being supervised by a chartered health psychologist.

Here is the link to take part, there is more detailed information on the opening page: [broken link removed]

Thanks very much, if you have any more questions about it before you take part then feel free to ask!

Sally

 

[brit]

Please complete the survey!!

Hello, I am a student completing a research project and my chosen topic is dental phobia. I would like to accumulate a broad range of opinions and thoughts about the dentist, so please complete the survey below. Many thanks for your time! Name: Age: Location: 1) How would you rate...

www.dentalfearcentral.org

This existing link may be of assistance to you.

This website deliberately avoids scary photos so I'm not sure how appropriate what you have posted is...I will take it as a guinea pig now to determine whether I can leave the link up.

After doing the survey:
I am willing to leave the link up BUT I would advise that it is based on the Corah Dental Anxiety Scale which we have debated on here before in conjunction with DRMike. This scale deliberately tries to raise your dental anxiety by the use of loaded language; and the photographs whilst not outrageous (apart from one) are hardly neutral...e.g. the waiting room is the oldfashioned type, the coats are white when many dentists now wear blue, you are viewing treatment (eg syringe) from a vantage point you would never have as a patient and the patients don't look as relaxed as they should if on the receiving end of modern painfree treatment.

I only did the dental section..others are welcome to give it a go if they wish....including the other sections(if they have the phobias) and report back accordingly.
So many tickboxes is always extremely tedious in survey filling as well....

 

[SallyB]

Thank you very much Brit for leaving the link up. I did deliberately try not to make any of the photos too scary, or at least not any worse than what you might see on a TV programme. Thanks for your comments about the Corah Dental Anxiety Scale...I realise that no such scales can ever be ideal or completely accurate but as I'm only an undergraduate I have to use standardised scales that other people have created and the Corah scale plus the Dental Concerns Assessment were the ones my supervisor advised me to use. I would please ask people not to fill out the other phobia sections not relating to dental phobia unless they have the other phobias though.

Sorry if anyone has found it a little tedious to complete but I seriously greatly appreciate anyone who has taken the time to fill it in for me. It will be so much help to me!

Thanks,

Sally

 

[SallyB]

P.S. thank you for your comments re some photos being unrealistic too - I will definitely note that and take it in to account in my analysis but sadly I am on a short time scale and designed it as best I could with the time I have, and can't change the study now that I have already opened it for responses as it would mess up the results.

All you have said is much appreciated though

 

[brit]

P.S. thank you for your comments re some photos being unrealistic too - I will definitely note that and take it in to account in my analysis but sadly I am on a short time scale and designed it as best I could with the time I have, and can't change the study now that I have already opened it for responses as it would mess up the results.

All you have said is much appreciated though

You are right that the media does use deliberately scary photos..in your study, the one of the girl brandishing the pile of instruments in a way a dentist never would is reminiscent of a horror film t.b.h. just the grin on her face really....

I think you really do have an uphill struggle in contacting 'real dental phobics' since no self-respecting dental phobic would go near a questionnaire about the subject they fear so much (or think they do) so when the actual questionnaire seeks to deliberately raise their anxiety it is not particularly helpful.
The dental concerns section was the best bit though and the extra questions about other areas of anxiety in people's lives.
Good luck anyway.

 

[SallyB]

You are right that the media does use deliberately scary photos..in your study, the one of the girl brandishing the pile of instruments in a way a dentist never would is reminiscent of a horror film t.b.h. just the grin on her face really....

I think you really do have an uphill struggle in contacting 'real dental phobics' since no self-respecting dental phobic would go near a questionnaire about the subject they fear so much (or think they do) so when the actual questionnaire seeks to deliberately raise their anxiety it is not particularly helpful.
Good luck anyway.

I'm sorry - I didn't think she looked like she was brandishing them as much as holding them - if I thought it looked creepy I wouldn't have used it in the first place as it isn't meant to be unrealistic.

And I know that looking at those photos could make people anxious but that is honestly not the purpose of my study. I can't explain what the purpose is here as obviously that could influence the results - but there is a reason why you can opt out of all the photos if you wish - and a reason why I still ask for people to complete the second half even if they don't see the photos. If I was trying to raise anxiety that would not be the case. I am really, really not trying to upset anybody and I'm sorry if it looks that way to you. I am actually terrified of injections myself, which is part of the reason I chose to do my research about phobias, and locating the photos for that section was difficult for me. I forced myself to look at all of them over and over before I could justify putting them on my study for others to look at too.

Since you have completed my survey already (and thank you again for doing so), if you'd like me to PM you with the actual aims of my study then I'm more than happy to explain to you a little better what I'm trying to do

 

[gettingthere]

Hi

Just wanted to add my own two-cents here after doing the survey.

Firstly, I am pleased that you are undertaking this research and am happy to help with this – and other requests – in any way I can. I think phobias – especially dental/medical phobias - are often brushed aside or belittled by many people so the fact that the dental industry in particular has really take notice of this and are striving to put patients at ease these days is to be applauded but as many posters on this site – including myself – have noted, there are still a lot of dental/medical professionals who subscribe to the “put up and shut up theory” and so I think it is wonderful that we have people like yourself who have both the awareness and interest in the effects of phobias to investigate this further which I hope will go some way to changing attitudes of others and making all experiences more comfortable for people like me. For my part, I am happy to provide information to help this process along.

That said, however, I have taken the survey and have somewhat mixed feelings. I have read the subsequent comments on this thread by both yourself and Brit and I have to say I understand, why the Corah Scale was used and am mindful of the fact that in order to properly analyze a phobic response you need to provoke a reaction. I think the concern is that this forum is, as has been said, a safe place where graphic images do not appear and yes, some of the images you have used, are somewhat unsettling. I chose to take the needle-phobia route as, although it is a close run thing, at this point in time, it is needles (including dental injections) rather than general dental phobia that bother me. I only got as far as the third picture (not sure how many there actually are) and then had to stop and get away from my computer for a minute or two. I wouldn’t want anyone on this site to have a relapse or real anxiety attack based on the completion of this survey so whilst I am pleased to have helped – and have chosen to take part in the follow-up – I would encourage others to be aware of the content before going into this. This is not critiscm, I am just concerned that some people might think, “well it has been posted and allowed on DFC so it can’t be too bad…” I’m also not saying I think it should be removed from the forum, this is certainly a great place to reach a good cross section of phobics and I hope that other people do decide – after thinking carefully about what they might see and how it might affect them – to help you out with this important work.

These of course, are just my thoughts and I don’t want to be seen to speak for anyone else on this board or elsewhere. The only other feedback I have is that the survey seems a little long and as has been mentioned, many people find it tedious to have to go through so many tickboxes on such a large scale, especially after the images section, with my heart pounding and anxiety rising, I found it quite hard to concentrate properly on the long sections afterwards – although I think the information you are trying to capture in these sections is good – so perhaps the format needs to be reconsidered?

I wish you well with this project and would be interested to hear about your findings if this would be at all possible.

 

[SallyB]

Hi

Just wanted to add my own two-cents here after doing the survey.

Firstly, I am pleased that you are undertaking this research and am happy to help with this – and other requests – in any way I can. I think phobias – especially dental/medical phobias - are often brushed aside or belittled by many people so the fact that the dental industry in particular has really take notice of this and are striving to put patients at ease these days is to be applauded but as many posters on this site – including myself – have noted, there are still a lot of dental/medical professionals who subscribe to the “put up and shut up theory” and so I think it is wonderful that we have people like yourself who have both the awareness and interest in the effects of phobias to investigate this further which I hope will go some way to changing attitudes of others and making all experiences more comfortable for people like me. For my part, I am happy to provide information to help this process along.

That said, however, I have taken the survey and have somewhat mixed feelings. I have read the subsequent comments on this thread by both yourself and Brit and I have to say I understand, why the Corah Scale was used and am mindful of the fact that in order to properly analyze a phobic response you need to provoke a reaction. I think the concern is that this forum is, as has been said, a safe place where graphic images do not appear and yes, some of the images you have used, are somewhat unsettling. I chose to take the needle-phobia route as, although it is a close run thing, at this point in time, it is needles (including dental injections) rather than general dental phobia that bother me. I only got as far as the third picture (not sure how many there actually are) and then had to stop and get away from my computer for a minute or two. I wouldn’t want anyone on this site to have a relapse or real anxiety attack based on the completion of this survey so whilst I am pleased to have helped – and have chosen to take part in the follow-up – I would encourage others to be aware of the content before going into this. This is not critiscm, I am just concerned that some people might think, “well it has been posted and allowed on DFC so it can’t be too bad…” I’m also not saying I think it should be removed from the forum, this is certainly a great place to reach a good cross section of phobics and I hope that other people do decide – after thinking carefully about what they might see and how it might affect them – to help you out with this important work.

These of course, are just my thoughts and I don’t want to be seen to speak for anyone else on this board or elsewhere. The only other feedback I have is that the survey seems a little long and as has been mentioned, many people find it tedious to have to go through so many tickboxes on such a large scale, especially after the images section, with my heart pounding and anxiety rising, I found it quite hard to concentrate properly on the long sections afterwards – although I think the information you are trying to capture in these sections is good – so perhaps the format needs to be reconsidered?

I wish you well with this project and would be interested to hear about your findings if this would be at all possible.

Hi,

Thanks very much for your thoughts. As I mentioned before, any criticisms or positive comments regarding the survey are very useful to me however for obvious reasons I can't change the format now because a lot of people have participated already and changes would invalidate their results. I know there's quite a lot of questions asked and it is a little tedious, but because the scales used have been validated etc I can't remove questions from them in my research to make it shorter, even the second time around. I realise that some of the pictures (particularly the needle ones - and believe it or not I am actually petrified of needles myself - finding those photos was hard for me) are quite graphic, but that is why people have the option to skip them all if they wish, or to opt out after one or two. People opt out for a reason and those reasons are things I can talk about in my discussion. My aim is by no means to raise anxiety as it might seem, just trying to see how many photos different people feel able to look at. Obviously anxiety is likely to be raised after seeing the photos but I'm not trying to see how anxious I can make people, if that makes any sense.

It's really nice to hear some positive comments though so thank you, and constructive criticisms - although I can't change the survey at this point - are really useful to me as well. Thanks very much for participating...I'd be more than happy once my project is finished to post my findings and more details about what the aims are on here if people would like to see.

Thank you,

Sally

 

[gettingthere]

Hi,
I realise that some of the pictures (particularly the needle ones - and believe it or not I am actually petrified of needles myself - finding those photos was hard for me) are quite graphic, but that is why people have the option to skip them all if they wish, or to opt out after one or two. People opt out for a reason and those reasons are things I can talk about in my discussion.
Sally

Yes, sorry, I should have said. The decision to allow people to opt out of the photos is a very good one and I although I may personally have regretted going "one click too far" for my personal levels of "copeabililty" I do see the virtue in these being part of the survey.

I hope the information you gather is helpful and wish you well.

 

[brit]

Funnily enough Sally..maybe the world is not as bereft of inappropriate dental imagery as I thought which means your images probably were mainly at the reasonable end of things apart from the girl.
I have just seen a new tv ad which plays on dental fear and exploits the ultra white sterile masked environment and totally silent staff and the usual drill noise as it is approaching the patient's mouth, followed by a scream which cuts to the product being promoted as an escape from this hellish dental environment.....and it showed a much more in depth graphic of a patient receiving an injection than is the norm in any newsreel...happily I am not currently in UK...so you will not be at risk of seeing it (i hope).

A large proportion of the target audience is bound to have dental fear and what they showed will not have helped a single one get any nearer to making an appointment...so I feel sad for these people.
I still cringe when I watch things like this because I don't want my kids to see it...I have taken steps to ensure they go to cosy friendly bright non-sterile dental practices...but I could do without the media putting these negative ideas in their head.

Well the thread has certainly had a lot of views so I hope some people took the survey but as this is a 'place of safety' it is only fair to warn them.

 

[SallyB]

Thanks Brit, I honestly did try to make them as normal as possible...I've looked at the photo of the girl a few times again and can kind of see what you mean, even though it doesn't bother me because I'm not that bothered by the dentist (unless he wants to give me an injection, anyway!) - her facial expression is a bit creepy. I checked where I got the image from though, and it was actually from here - [broken link removed] - be warned, the picture is on the page linked to - which actually looks like a dental well-being website. Perhaps they should have also given it a second thought.

The advert you mentioned sounds horrible! It's awful when advertisers use scare tactics to advertise stuff and you're right, if their target market is people with dental fear I doubt they'll get many customers!

I totally understand your need to warn people with this being a safe place and I did try to do that on my information page as well, like I said I would hate to think I'd badly scared anybody.

People with dental phobia are so far my second largest group of participants so thanks to anyone from here who's done my survey and to anyone who is intending to.

 

[brit]

Thanks for the link - are you sure that's the one, it's similar but....I don't think she had a mask just a creepy smile. That one she is smiling nicely but behind a mask...totally dumb for a dental website...no one holds multiple dental instruments like that..there would be no reason too....in that one she's not holding them quite as menacingly either(I think)..but still..what do they think mainstream prospective patients would like to see on a dental website?

I've reviewed worldwide dental websites for about 3 years on here now and you do get some hilariously inappropriate scary ones....and some outrageously slick cosmetic standardised ones. which are little better than a Yellow Pages Ad....I like the homegrown inbetween ones with photos of real staff, wacky bios and comfort/painfree messages.

 

[SallyB]

It's definitely the same one, I'd know any of the photos from the survey in a second I've looked at them all so many times haha. It's actually the mask I find the most creepy about it now I come to think of it, but I knew I wouldn't have got any intentionally sick photos from anywhere and that's why I checked where I got it...I'd a feeling it was a pro dental care website. Odd though, you're right.

I did see a few of the images you're talking about - not really the websites as I was running an image search - but some of them really were outrageous...ones with dentists holding a massive (not actually real) drill etc. Really makes me wonder how much time these people have on their hands and why they'd take the photos. It could be especially scary for young people if they didn't realise that some of the instruments weren't real, etc. There's similar sorts of photos of needles as well which are pretty horrid. I suppose with the other 3 (injuries, vomit, blood) they are things that most people wouldn't want to see an image of, so there were less outrageous ones of those, but there still were a few!

It's great that you've taken the time to review so many websites, it must be really helpful to the people that use this forum

 

[SallyB]

Hi everybody!

Thanks to all members of this forum who already took the survey. If anybody hasn't yet done it but feels they might be able to do so then please fill the survey out ASAP as I will have to close it soon and start analysing the results. Another few dental phobics participating would really help towards the possible statistical significance of any results I find relevant to dental phobics so if anyone could take this survey now I would appreciate it loads! Also if anybody knows any dental phobics who are not regular visitors to this forum and would be willing to pass it on to them, that would be a great help, too.

Thanks,

Sally