At the Dentist, Anxiety Breeds Pain
March 11, 2008

by Nancy Volkers
InteliHealth News Service

INTELIHEALTH - Dental anxiety affects pain more than the type of numbing shot, a study says.

Researchers from Turkey found that children who were anxious before getting any numbing shot thought the shot was more painful than non-anxious children did.

Children received shots one of two ways. Some got a usual shot with a needle and syringe. Others were given a computerized injection called the Wand. The Wand has been said to be less painful.

In this study, one injection was not less painful than the other. What mattered was the anxiety level of the child.

There were 41 children in the study. They were 9 to 13 years old. All were treated at Marmara University in Istanbul.

Anxiety levels were measured using surveys and observations by the researchers. Each child's heart rate also was measured. The children rated their pain on a numbered scale (for example, 1 being very little pain and 10 being extreme pain).

The researchers concluded that anxiety plays an important role in the perception of pain.

Other research has found that anxiety makes pain worse in many medical situations. On the other hand, fear reduces pain sensations. Fear is a reaction to a threat in the present moment. Anxiety focuses on possible threats in the future.

The study appears in the March issue of the International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry.