ArticleBritish dental journal2023
The use of oral benzodiazepines for the management of dental anxiety: a web-based survey of UK dentists.
Article in British dental journal, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Methods used in adult dental extraction patients to improve psychoemotional status: systematic review.BMC oral health · 2026Pooled it
- Interdisciplinary Management of White Coat Hypertension in Geriatric Oral Surgery: Case Report.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Gingerols and Shogaols ofJournal of experimental pharmacology · 2025Article
- Prevalence of benzodiazepines prescription in the dental office across the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia.F1000Research · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Background Oral benzodiazepines (OBZs) can facilitate treatment of dentally anxious patients and are widely used in countries such as Australia and the United States. Dentists in the UK prescribe them much less often.Aims To examine OBZ prescribing by dentists in the UK, including patterns of practice, barriers to use, and alternative anxiety management strategies.Methods An online mixed-methods survey was conducted utilising Qualtrics. Participants were recruited via the private Facebook group 'For Dentists, By Dentists' during April to June 2021. Quantitative data were analysed with descriptive statistics and qualitative data with thematic analysis.Results In total, 235 dentists participated, with 91% being general dentists. Half had previously prescribed OBZs, with 36% doing so in the last year. Only 18% were confident in their use. Diazepam was the anxiolytic preferred by respondents. Two-thirds of dentists who had never prescribed anxiolytics were interested in doing so in the future. Concerns about managing anxious patients with OBZs included: inadequate training; confusion about guidelines; medico-legal risk; and issues of general practitioners prescribing anxiolytics to dental patients unbeknown to their dentist.Conclusions A lack of confidence prescribing OBZs for anxiolysis exists among UK dentists. Guidelines should be clarified, and training provided.
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Registered trials
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