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Is perfectionism associated to dental anxiety?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

A.T. Pereira ,
C. Cabaços ,
A. Araujo ,
M.J. Soares  and
A. Macedo
A.T. Pereira*
Affiliation:
Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Faculty Of Medicine, University of Coimbra, coimbra, Portugal
C. Cabaços
Affiliation:
Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Faculty Of Medicine, University of Coimbra, coimbra, Portugal
A. Araujo
Affiliation:
Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Faculty Of Medicine, University of Coimbra, coimbra, Portugal Psychiatry Department, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
M.J. Soares
Affiliation:
Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Faculty Of Medicine, University of Coimbra, coimbra, Portugal
A. Macedo
Affiliation:
Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Faculty Of Medicine, University of Coimbra, coimbra, Portugal Psychiatry Department, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Personality traits like neuroticism and trait-anxiety, as well as the predisposition to a greater sensitivity to pain, are risk factors for dental anxiety. Although perfectionism has been associated with both anxiety and pain, particularly when mediated by repetitive negative thinking/RNT (Macedo et al. 2015; Albuquerque et al. 2013), its role in dental anxiety has not yet been studied.

Objectives

To analyze the role of perfectionism and RNT in dental anxiety.

Methods

A community sample of 552 adults (68.2% women; mean age=35.15±15.79 years) completed the Portuguese versions of:Hewit and Flett Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale–13, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Sensitivity to Pain Traumatization/SPT Scale, Fear of Dental Pain/FDP Questionnaire, Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire and Dental Fear Survey/DFS.

Results

Trait-anxiety (r=.225), socially prescribed perfectionism/SPP (r=.177), SPT (r=.286), FDP (r=.509) and RNT (r=.274) were significantly (p<.01) correlated with dental anxiety (DFS total score). Serial mediation analysis using the PROCESS-macro 3.5 for SPSS (Hayes, 2020; Model 6) showed that even controlling for trait-anxiety and gender (as SPT, FDP and RNT mean scores were significantly higher in women, p<.01) SPP plays a significant indirect effect through SDT, FDP and RNT on dental anxiety, which are (isolated or sequentially) full mediators of this relationship (Total effect: .553, p<.001).

Conclusions

This study shows for the first time that negative perfectionism is a predictor of dental anxiety; its influence operates through the increase in levels of sensitivity to pain, DPA and RNT. We suggest that when intervening in this health problem it is important to evaluate perfectionism and try to mitigate its negative impact, namely diminishing RNT and the focus on pain and fear.

Keywords

Dental AnxietyPerfectionism
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S186
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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