ArticleJournal of public health dentistry2024
Leveraging technology to increase the disseminability of evidence-based treatment of dental fear: An uncontrolled pilot study.
Article in Journal of public health dentistry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Moderating effect of pain sensitivity on dental anxiety: a randomized controlled cognitive-behavioral intervention trial.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2026Trial
- A census-matched survey of dental fear and fear-treatment interest in the United States.Journal of the American Dental Association (1939) · 2025Article
- Treating dental anxiety for patients with a trauma history or severe dental anxiety: A scoping review.European journal of oral sciences · 2025Article
- Orthodontic and General Dentistry Fear in 8-73-Year-Old Patients at a Large, Urban U.S. Orthodontic Clinic: Self-Reported Point Prevalences and Clinical Implications.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Examining barriers and facilitators of dental fear treatment adoption: A qualitative study of practicing dentists.PloS one · 2025Article
- A Pre-Adoption Assessment of a Collaborative Care Approach to Dental-Fear Treatment.Oral (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Afraid of the dentist? There's an app for that: Development and usability testing of a cognitive behavior therapy-based mobile app.PLOS digital health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesU.S. and global estimates indicate that over 30% of adults fear receiving dental care, including over 20% who have visited a dentist in the last year, leading to avoidance and degraded oral and systemic health. Although evidence-based cognitive-behavioral treatments for dental fear (CBT-DF) exist, they have little impact on the millions who seek dental care annually because they are not disseminable (6 h of in-chair time, delivered only in person at a few sites). We developed a disseminable CBT-DF stepped-care treatment comprising (Step 1) a mobile-health application and, for those who remain fearful, (Step 2) a 1-h, one-on-one psychological treatment session that allows practice during exposure to the patient's most-feared stimuli. We hypothesized that the treatment would (a) be rated highly on usability and credibility and (b) result in clinically consequential (i.e., lowering fear into the 0-3 "no/low fear" zone) and statistically significant changes in global dental fear.
methodRacially/ethnically diverse patients (N = 48) with moderate to severe dental fear were recruited; all completed Step 1, and n = 16 completed Step 2.
resultsAs hypothesized, users found the stepped-care treatment highly usable, credible, and helpful. Critically, this stepped-care approach produced reductions in patients' dental fear that were both clinically consequential (with half no longer fearful) and statistically significant (d = 1.11).
conclusionsThis usable, credible, stepped-care approach to dental fear treatment holds promise for liberating evidence-based CBT-DF from specialty clinics, allowing broad dissemination.
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Registered trials
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