Efficacy of a trauma‐focused treatment approach for dental phobia: a randomized clinical trial
Abstract
It has been hypothesized that treatment specifically focused on resolving memories of negative dental events might be efficacious for the alleviation of anxiety in patients with dental phobia. Thirty‐one medication‐free patients who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM‐IV‐TR) criteria of dental phobia were randomly assigned to either Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) or a waitlist control condition. Dental anxiety was assessed using the Dental Anxiety Questionnaire (DAS), the Dental Fear Survey (DFS), a behavior test, and dental attendance at 1‐yr of follow up. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing was associated with significant reductions of dental anxiety and avoidance behavior as well as in symptoms of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The effect sizes for the primary outcome measures were d = 2.52 (DAS) and d = 1.87 (DFS). These effects were still significant 3 months (d = 3.28 and d = 2.28, respectively) and 12 months (d = 3.75 and d = 1.79, respectively) after treatment. After 1 yr, 83.3% of the patients were in regular dental treatment (d = 3.20). The findings suggest that therapy aimed at processing memories of past dental events can be helpful for patients with dental phobia.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Studies have demonstrated better results using CBT techniques compared to other kinds of behaviour management regardless of methodology.
“Studies have also demonstrated better results using CBT techniques compared to other kinds of behaviour management regardless of methodology 8,25-27 .”
From Cognitive behaviour therapy for anxious paediatric dental patients: a systematic review. (2018) · cites this paper as [27]
Cites
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Williams, J. B. W., & First, M. B. (2013) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.104 · Cited by 109,841 · see citing works
The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
Zigmond, A. S., & Snaith, R. P. (1983) · Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.1983.tb09716.x · Cited by 47,139 · see citing works
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR)
American Psychiatric Association (2000) · doi:10.1176/appi.books.9780890423349 · Cited by 11,069 · see citing works
Development, reliability, and validity of a dissociation scale
BERNSTEIN, E. M., & PUTNAM, F. W. (1986) · The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease · doi:10.1097/00005053-198612000-00004 · Cited by 3,793 · cited 3× · see citing works
“(iv) Dissociative symptoms assessed using the German version of the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) (35), the Fragebogen zu dissoziativen Symptomen (FDS-20) (36).”
MethodThe Impact of Event Scale: Revised
Weiss, D. S. (2007) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-0-387-70990-1_10 · Cited by 3,009 · see citing works
Morris, S. B., & DeShon, R. P. (2002) · Psychological Methods · doi:10.1037/1082-989x.7.1.105 · Cited by 2,502 · see citing works
Assessing Psychological Trauma and PTSD
Allden, K. (1998) · The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease · doi:10.1097/00005053-199807000-00018 · Cited by 1,709 · see citing works
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures
Shapiro, F. (1995) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 1,529 · see citing works
Update on empirically validated therapies, II: (619622010-001)
Chambless, D. L., Baker, M. J., Baucom, D. H., Beutler, L. E., Calhoun, K. S., Crits-Christoph, P., Daiuto, A., DeRubeis, R., Detweiler, J., Haaga, D. A. F., et al. (1997) · PsycEXTRA Dataset · doi:10.1037/e619622010-001 · Cited by 1,488 · see citing works
Development of a Dental Anxiety Scale
Corah, N. L. (1969) · Journal of Dental Research · doi:10.1177/00220345690480041801 · Cited by 1,299 · see citing works
Demmel, R. (1999) · Zeitschrift für Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie · doi:10.1026//0084-5345.28.1.68 · Cited by 1,010 · see citing works
Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
Zigmond, A. S., & Snaith, R. P. (2013) · PsycTESTS Dataset · doi:10.1037/t03589-000 · Cited by 946 · see citing works
Origins and Characteristics of Fear of Dentistry
Kleinknecht, R. A., Klepac, R. K., & Alexander, L. D. (1973) · The Journal of the American Dental Association · doi:10.14219/jada.archive.1973.0165 · Cited by 816 · see citing works
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing: Basic principles, protocols, and procedures
Lohr, J. (1996) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7967(96)90013-3 · Cited by 759 · see citing works
Hospital anxiety and depression scale, Deutsche version (HADS-D)
Petermann, F. (2011) · Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie, Psychologie und Psychotherapie · doi:10.1024/1661-4747/a000077 · Cited by 558 · see citing works
Dental fear and avoidance: causes, symptoms, and consequences
Berggren, U., & Meynert, G. (1984) · The Journal of the American Dental Association · doi:10.14219/jada.archive.1984.0328 · Cited by 549 · see citing works
How eye movements affect unpleasant memories: Support for a working-memory account
Gunter, R. W., & Bodner, G. E. (2008) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2008.04.006 · Cited by 362 · see citing works
Erfassung von psychischen Belastungsfolgen: Die Impact of Event Skala-revidierte Version (IES-R).
Maercker, A. R. A., & Schützwohl, M. (1998) · Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) · Cited by 360 · see citing works
Prevalence of dental fear and phobia relative to other fear and phobia subtypes
Oosterink, F. M. D., de Jongh, A., & Hoogstraten, J. (2009) · European Journal Of Oral Sciences · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0722.2008.00602.x · Cited by 322 · see citing works
Neo-conditioning and the classical theory of fear acquisition
Rachman, S. (1991) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/0272-7358(91)90093-a · Cited by 247 · see citing works
Specificity in Familial Aggregation of Phobic Disorders
Fyer, A. J. (1995) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1995.03950190046007 · Cited by 215 · see citing works
Oosterink, F. M. D., de Jongh, A., & Aartman, I. H. A. (2008) · European Journal Of Oral Sciences · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0722.2007.00500.x · Cited by 205 · see citing works
Dental fear in adults: a meta-analysis of behavioral interventions
Kvale, G., Berggren, U., & Milgrom, P. (2004) · Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0528.2004.00146.x · Cited by 198 · see citing works
The impact of dental anxiety on daily living
Cohen, S. M., Fiske, J., & Newton, T. (2000) · BDJ · doi:10.1038/sj.bdj.4800777 · Cited by 194 · see citing works
A critical review of approaches to the treatment of dental anxiety in adults
Gordon, D., Heimberg, R. G., Tellez, M., & Ismail, A. I. (2013) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2013.04.002 · Cited by 168 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Psychotherapeutic methods, particularly those based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), are regarded as the treatments of choice for dental phobia (16, 17).”
BackgroundNg, S. K. S., & Leung, W. K. (2008) · Community Dentistry And Oral Epidemiology · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0528.2007.00412.x · Cited by 161 · see citing works
Engelhard, I. M., van den Hout, M., & Smeets, M. A. M. (2010) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2010.09.004 · Cited by 141 · see citing works
A review and meta-analysis of the heritability of specific phobia subtypes and corresponding fears
Van Houtem, C. M. H. H., Laine, M. L., Boomsma, D. I., Ligthart, L., van Wijk, A. J., & De Jongh, A. (2013) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2013.04.007 · Cited by 131 · see citing works
Dental anxiety among Australians.
Thomson, W. M., Stewart, J., Carter, K. D., & Spencer, A. J. (1996) · PubMed · Cited by 119 · see citing works
Treatment of Specific Phobias with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
de Jongh, A., ten Broeke, E., & Renssen, M. (1999) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/s0887-6185(98)00040-1 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Dental anxiety and quality of life: the effect of dental treatment
Vermaire, J. H., de Jongh, A., & Aartman, I. H. A. (2008) · Community Dentistry And Oral Epidemiology · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0528.2007.00416.x · Cited by 107 · see citing works
de Jongh, A., Fransen, J., Oosterink, F. M. D., & Aartman, I. H. A. (2006) · European Journal Of Oral Sciences · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0722.2006.00384.x · Cited by 98 · see citing works
de Jongh, A., Ernst, R., Marques, L., & Hornsveld, H. K. (2013) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2013.07.002 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
Long-term effects on dental care behavior and dental health after treatments for dental fear.
Hakeberg, M., Berggren, U., Carlsson, S. G., & Gröndahl, H. (1993) · PubMed Central · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Correlates of Success and Failure in Behavior Therapy for Dental Fear
Kleinhauz, M., Eli, I., Baht, R., & Shamay, D. (1992) · Journal of Dental Research · doi:10.1177/00220345920710111301 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms following wisdom tooth removal
de Jongh, A., Olff, M., van Hoolwerff, H., Aartman, I. H. A., Broekman, B. F. P., Lindauer, R., & Boer, F. (2008) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2008.09.004 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
de Jongh, A., van den Oord, H. J. M., & ten Broeke, E. (2002) · Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1002/jclp.10100 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Boakes, J. (1995) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(95)91736-5 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Trauma‐related phenomena in anxious dental patients
de Jongh, A., Aartman, I. H. A., & Brand, N. (2003) · Community Dentistry And Oral Epidemiology · doi:10.1034/j.1600-0528.2003.00025.x · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Tönnies, S., Mehrstedt, M., & Eisentraut, I. (2002) · Zeitschrift für Medizinische Psychologie · doi:10.3233/zmp-2002-11_2_04 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Usefulness of a trauma‐focused treatment approach for travel phobia
de Jongh, A., Holmshaw, M., Carswell, W., & van Wijk, A. J. (2010) · Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy · doi:10.1002/cpp.680 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Die anwendung von EMDR bei der behandlung Spezifischer Phobien
de Jongh, A., & ten Broeke, E. (2006) · UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Landin-Romero, R., Moreno-Alcazar, A., Pagani, M., & Amann, B. L. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01395 · Cited by 188 · see citing works
Gujjar, K. R., van Wijk, A., Kumar, R., & de Jongh, A. (2019) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2018.12.001 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Self-citationYunitri, N., Kao, C.-C., Chu, H., Voss, J., Chiu, H.-L., Liu, D., Shen, S.-T. H., Chang, P.-C., Kang, X. L., & Chou, K.-R. (2020) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.01.005 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Cognitive behaviour therapy for anxious paediatric dental patients: a systematic review.
Gomes, H. S., Viana, K. A., Batista, A. C., Costa, L. R., Hosey, M. T., & Newton, T. (2018) · International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry · doi:10.1111/ipd.12405 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Baas, M. A. M., Stramrood, C. A. I., Dijksman, L. M., de Jongh, A., & van Pampus, M. G. (2017) · European Journal of Psychotraumatology · doi:10.1080/20008198.2017.1293315 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Virtual reality exposure therapy for treatment of dental phobia
Gujjar, K. R., Sharma, R., & Jongh, A. D. (2017) · Dental Update · doi:10.12968/denu.2017.44.5.423 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Self-citationHafkemeijer, L., Starrenburg, A., van der Palen, J., Slotema, K., & de Jongh, A. (2021) · Journal of Clinical Medicine · doi:10.3390/jcm10194333 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Rational thinking as a mediator of the relationship between mindfulness and dental anxiety
Yao, J., Carciofo, R., & Pan, L. (2023) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-023-28879-4 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
- Authors
- Doering, S., Ohlmeier, M., de Jongh, A., Hofmann, A., & Bisping, V.
- Affiliations
- Medical University of Vienna (AT)
- University of Münster (DE)
- Department of Social Dentistry and Behavioral Sciences ACTA University of Amsterdam Amsterdam the Netherlands
- EMDR-Institut Deutschland (DE)
- Private Practice Hamm Germany
- Corresponding author
- Doering, Stephan
- ORCID
- Doering, Stephan
- Venue
- European Journal of Oral Sciences
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2013-09-23
- Volume
- 121
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 584-593
- ISSN
- 0029-845X (ISSN-L)
- 0909-8836
- 1600-0722
- OpenAlex
- W2065916190
- Cited by
- 56
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 4
- FWCI
- 2.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Journal Of Oral Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Dentistry › Oral Surgery › Dental Anxiety and Anesthesia Techniques
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Keywords
- dental phobia, dental anxiety, EMDR, trauma-focused psychotherapy, memory processes, post-traumatic stress disorder, avoidance behavior, dental attendance, treatment efficacy
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Analysis of Variance, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Dental Anxiety, Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
