Access to a dental anxiety therapy for severe dental anxiety.

Hi r/AskDentists,

Posting with the moderators' permission — thank you to the mod team for considering my request.

I'm Dr Ian Davies, a dentist in Brisbane, Australia. Together with Associate Professor Ratilal Lalloo at the University of Queensland School of Dentistry, I'm running a research study into a non-pharmaceutical approach to managing dental anxiety. We're at the recruitment stage and I'm hoping some of you, or people in your lives, might be interested in participating.

The study in brief

We've developed a 4-minute film designed to help reduce dental anxiety over time, with no dental imagery or footage of procedures. Participants watch it once a day at home for 90 days. We measure dental anxiety scores at baseline and at 90 days.  We have had many success stories so far and wish to formally measure the improvement.

What participation involves

5-minute online sign-up and a baseline IDAF-4C+ questionnaire

A 4-minute daily video viewing for 90 days (any time that suits you)

A follow-up IDAF-4C+ questionnaire at the end

Who can take part

Adults aged 18 or older

Self-identified dental anxiety (no formal diagnosis required)

Comfortable reading and understanding English

Internet access on a device that can play video on a tablet size screen or computer

Study setup

Free to join, anonymous, voluntary

Withdrawal at any time, with full data deletion

Approved by the University of Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee (approval number 2023/HE001474)

 

Link to participate: https://secfilmresearch.com.au

I'll be in this thread to answer methodology questions and queries from anyone considering signing up. I won't be giving clinical dental advice in the comments — this is purely a research recruitment post, so any individual dental questions are best directed to your own dentist.

Thanks again to the mod team for allowing this, and to the community for reading.

— Dr Ian Davies, BDSc (Hons) QLD