Dental Anxiety Scale
Dental Anxiety Scale
Dental Anxiety Scale
1. If you had to go to the dentist tomorrow for a check-up, how would you feel about it?
2. When you are waiting in the dentist's office for your turn in the chair, how do you feel?
a. Relaxed.
b. A little uneasy.
c. Tense.
d. Anxious.
e. So anxious that I sometimes break out in a sweat or almost feel physically sick.
3. When you are in the dentist's chair waiting while the dentist gets the drill ready to begin
working on your teeth, how do you feel?
a. Relaxed.
b. A little uneasy.
c. Tense.
d. Anxious.
e. So anxious that I sometimes break out in a sweat or almost feel physically sick.
4. Imagine you are in the dentist's chair to have your teeth cleaned. While you are waiting
and the dentist or hygienist is getting out the instruments which will be used to scrape
your teeth around the gums, how do you feel?
a. Relaxed.
b. A little uneasy.
c. Tense.
d. Anxious.
e. So anxious that I sometimes break out in a sweat or almost feel physically sick.
Anxiety rating:
• 9 - 12 = moderate anxiety but have specific stressors that should be discussed and
managed
• 13 - 14 = high anxiety
• 15 - 20 = severe anxiety (or phobia). May be manageable with the Dental
Concerns Assessment but might require the help of a mental health therapist.
DENTAL CONCERNS ASSESSMENT*
Please rank your concerns or anxiety over the dental procedures listed below by ranking them
on the accompanying scale. Please fill in any additional concerns.
*Developed by J.H. Clarke and S. Rustvold, Oregon Health Sciences University School of Dentistry, 1993
[revised 1998]