Subjective burden is a central variable describing the situation encountered by family caregivers. The 10-item short version of the Burden Scale for Family Caregivers (BSFC-short/BSFC-s) was developed to provide an economical measure of this variable. The present study examined the reliability and validity of the BSFC-s.

The interaction between dental anxiety and the establishment of a consistent dental care routine has been an ongoing challenge. Unfortunately, there is limited available data concerning the detailed dental care practices of individuals with dental anxiety. Therefore, this study aims to explore how dental anxiety influences dental care habits and oral-health-related quality of life within an adult population. By utilizing the Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) and the German Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-G5), we assessed their extent. To evaluate the differences, we performed analyses of variance (Anova), an independent t-test and rank correlation. The findings of this study unveil a significant correlation between elevated DAS scores and reduced frequency of tooth brushing; calculus removal and appointments for professional teeth cleaning. Interestingly; the use of dental floss and mouthwash solution as well as toothbrush hardness appeared to be not significantly affected by dental fear. Moreover, individuals with dental anxiety demonstrated a preference for manual toothbrushes over electric ones. In addition, higher DAS scores were found to be strongly associated with greater OHIP-G5 scores, thus leading to a substantial decline in overall oral health-related quality of life.

Dental Anxiety is still today one of the most common fears and is therefore a great challenge for every dental practitioner. The aim of this study was to identify patients with dental anxiety using the Dental Anxiety Scale and comparing different levels of dental anxiety with oral health using DMF-T and DMF-S index. This study questioned 1549 patients over the course of three years (2002–2005). DAS questionnaires were handed out before treatment and the state of oral health was evaluated using DMF-T and DMF-S. There is no significant relation between high anxiety and the global DMF-T Score (p = 0.237), missing teeth (p = 0.034) and filled teeth (p = 0.237). There is however a significant increase in destroyed teeth, the higher the level of dental anxiety in the patient (p < 0.0001). There is as well a significant relationship between the global DMF-S Score (p = 0.042) and dental anxiety. No relationship was found comparing missing surfaces (p = 0.107) and filled surfaces (p = 0.516) with dental anxiety. Destroyed 16 surfaces are, however, significantly higher in patients with more dental anxiety (p < 0.0001). A higher dental anxiety therefore often causes minimalistic dentistry to fail due to more teeth being destroyed. Patients with dental anxiety still have a worse oral hygiene than patients without dental anxiety. It is still necessary, in this time of caries prevention rather than over-treatment, to be educated so that patients suffering dental fear receive the right treatment.

Objective: Preoperative anxiety influences the result of the treatment in patients. To assess preoperative anxiety the Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS) [1] was developed. The APAIS measures anxiety and the need-for-information with 6 items, with good reliability and validity. This article presents the first test of the German version of this screening instrument.

This study aimed to identify anxiety in dental patients visiting a dental clinic using the Dental Anxiety Scale, their level of psychological distress using the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 and therefore identifying a correlation between these groups as well as their gender and age. An adult sample of N = 1549 patients (865 females, 779 males) was examined over the course of three years using the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 to evaluate psychological distress and the Dental Anxiety Scale to determine anxiety before dental treatment. Evaluations were conducted according to age and gender. There was no correlation between different age groups of the sample the Dental Anxiety Scale. Anxiety, depression and GSI were more frequent in patients below the age of 46 than above. Women were more susceptible to signs of Anxiety and Somatization and scored higher on the Dental Anxiety Scale and the Global Severity Index than male patients. There was a significant positive correlation between scores of the BSI-18 categories: Somatization, Anxiety and Depression and the DAS for dental patients. This study showed that a relationship between dental anxiety and psychological distress exists. It would be an improvement to use a short questionnaire like the Dental Anxiety Scale to evaluate a patient before his first treatment so that more appropriate treatments can be pursued.