Comparison of the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy on pain tolerance and intensity perception in patients with dental anxiety: A randomized trial

Dental anxiety has negative effects on dentists’ pain management. Patients have different levels of pain tolerance. Therefore, providing psychological interventions can reduce treatment avoidance and promote oral health. This study compared the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on pain coping strategies and pain perception intensity in patients with dental anxiety.

This clinical trial with a pretest–posttest control group design and a 3‑month follow‑up period was performed on 45 patients with dental anxiety. They were randomly selected by convenience sampling method and assigned to two experimental groups and one control group. The first experimental group underwent 10 sessions of ACT, the second experimental group underwent 10 sessions of CBT, and the control group underwent oral care training. Data were collected by the Rosenstiel and Keefe’s Coping Strategies Questionnaire and McGill Pain Questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS (version 24) software. The considered significance level is 0.05.

The results showed no significant difference between ACT and CBT in pain coping strategies and pain perception intensity (P < 0.05) but indicated a significant difference between the treatment groups and the control group. Moreover, the results showed a significant difference between posttest and follow‑up and pretest in pain coping strategies and pain perception intensity (P < 0.01) but indicated no significant difference between posttest and follow‑up (P < 0.05).

ACT and CBT can play an important role in the sustainable improvement of pain coping strategies and pain perception intensity in patients with dental anxiety