牙科焦虑症心理治疗方法的研究进展

Research progress on psychotherapy for dental anxiety

牙科焦虑症(dental anxiety,DA)是指对牙科治疗产生特有的紧张、忧虑甚至恐惧心理,可能导致患者拒绝接受治疗而错过最佳治疗时机。随着生物-心理-社会医学模式的发展,心理治疗逐渐成为牙科焦虑症的优选治疗方法。本文对牙科焦虑症的病因、评估与心理治疗方法进行综述。目前研究结果表明,不适的牙科治疗体验是牙科焦虑症的主要病因,临床上常使用问卷法对牙科焦虑症进行评估。牙科焦虑症的心理治疗是一种无创性、适用范围广而无副作用的治疗方法,主要包括改善诊疗环境和服务态度、行为疗法和认知疗法等,已被证明能够缓解患者的牙科焦虑症。然而,牙科焦虑症的心理治疗对医生的要求较高,其推广与应用有待进一步提升。同时,牙科焦虑症的心理治疗机制尚不明确,有必要进行大规模高质量的随机对照研究进一步阐明。

Dental anxiety refers to the unique tension,worry and even fear of dental treatment,which may lead to patients refusing to receive treatment and missing the best time for treatment.With the development of bio-psycho-social medical models,psychotherapy has gradually become the optimal treatment for dental anxiety.This article reviewed the etiology,evaluation and psychotherapy of dental anxiety.Research has shown that uncomfortable dental treatment experience is the main cause of dental anxiety,which is commonly assessed using questionnaires in clinical practice.Psychotherapy for dental anxiety is a noninvasive,widely applicable treatment without side effects,mainly including improving the treatment environment and service attitude,behavior therapy,and cognitive therapy,which has been shown to effectively alleviate dental anxiety in patients.However,psychotherapy for dental anxiety is highly demanding for dentists,which hinders its promotion and application.At the same time,the psychotherapeutic mechanism of dental anxiety is not clear and remains to be further elucidated by large-scale and high-quality randomized controlled studies.