Abstract
Objectives: Dental anxiety presents a significant challenge in clinical practice, yet limited attention has been paid to how undergraduate dental and oral health students perceive, recognise, and respond to anxious patients. This study explored dental and oral health students' self-reported experiences of recognising and responding to patient dental anxiety in a New Zealand clinical education setting.
Methods: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted using open-ended survey responses from 101 clinical-year Bachelor of Dental Surgery and Bachelor of Oral Health students at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Thematic analysis was used to examine student reflections on recognising dental anxiety, applying behavioural strategies, and coping with the emotional demands of care.
Results: Five key themes were identified: recognising dental anxiety; therapeutic alliance; adaptive behavioural support and shared control; emotional labour of care; and clinical presentation and consequences of dental anxiety. Students commonly used patient-centred, non-pharmacological strategies such as explanation, empathy, pacing, and reassurance. Many found the emotional demands of managing anxious patients challenging but also rewarding. Few reported using formal anxiety screening tools.
Conclusion: Students described empathetic and patient-centred approaches to recognising and responding to patient dental anxiety. However, their responses suggest a need for more explicit curriculum-based teaching in dental anxiety support, including behavioural support strategies, communication skills, appropriate use of validated screening tools, and reflective practice.