Comparing the Effect of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Dental Anxiety

This study was aimed at the comparison of the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on dental anxiety.

 The present clinical trial was performed with a pretest-posttest design, a control group, and a 3-month follow-up period on patients with dental anxiety. The study participants were 48 patients who were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to 2 experimental groups and one control group. The first experimental group received 10 weekly 90-minute sessions of ACT and the second group received 10 weekly 90-minute sessions of CBT. The control group received no intervention. The Dental Anxiety Inventory (DAI) was used to assess the dependent variable and Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) and a pulse oximeter were used as screening tools. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA in SPSS software.

 The results showed a significant difference between the experimental groups and the control group in terms of dental anxiety (P < 0.01). Furthermore, there was a significant difference in dental anxiety between the pretest, and follow-up and posttest (P < 0.01), but there was no significant difference between the posttest and follow-up (P > 0.05). Moreover, there was no significant difference between the ACT and CBT groups (P > 0.05), but there was a significant difference between the 2 treatment groups and the control group (P < 0.05).

 ACT and CBT can be used to reduce dental anxiety, and thus, prevent treatment avoidance.