Dental Anxiety Test
How anxious are you about the dentist? Five questions from the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale – anonymous, evaluated instantly.
Five short questions from the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS), an internationally used questionnaire on dental anxiety. For each question, choose the answer that fits best.
1. If you went to your dentist for treatment tomorrow, how would you feel?
2. If you were sitting in the waiting room (waiting for treatment), how would you feel?
3. If you were about to have a tooth drilled, how would you feel?
4. If you were about to have your teeth scaled and polished, how would you feel?
5. If you were about to have a local anaesthetic injection in your gum, above an upper back tooth, how would you feel?
Optional: compare with other adults
If you add your sex and age group, we also show where your score lies compared with a large UK population study. No comparable published norms exist for Germany.
Sex
Age
Your answers are evaluated only in your browser and are not transmitted or stored.
Your result
Answer all five questions to see your result here.
This test is a self-assessment questionnaire, not a diagnosis. Dental phobia can only be diagnosed by a physician or a psychotherapist.
What is the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS)?
The MDAS was published in 1995 by Gerry Humphris and colleagues and is one of the most widely used questionnaires on dental anxiety. It consists of five questions about typical situations: treatment tomorrow, the waiting room, drilling, scaling and polishing, and the local anaesthetic injection. Each answer is scored from 1 (not anxious) to 5 (extremely anxious), so the total ranges from 5 to 25.
The scale is freely available; the wording used here is the official version provided by the Dental Anxiety research group at the University of St Andrews.
How to read your result
The authors give one cut-off: 19 points or more indicate high dental anxiety, possibly dental phobia. They point out themselves that anxiety is a continuum and a single cut-off can only be an approximation. They do not define further bands (such as “moderate anxiety”) – so we don’t show any.
If you add your sex and age group, we show where your score lies compared with about 10,000 adults from the UK Adult Dental Health Survey 2009. In that study about 12% scored 19 or more overall – women more often than men, younger adults more often than older ones.
Dental anxiety can be treated
Whether it is mild tension or great fear, what matters is that your dentist knows. In our practice in Munich-Oberföhring we start with a conversation without treatment, agree on a stop signal and explain every step. If that is not enough, nitrous oxide, twilight sedation and – on dedicated days with a specialist anaesthetist – general anaesthesia are available. For very strong anxiety, psychotherapy can additionally help reduce the fear itself.
Read more in our dental anxiety guide and on the page Dentist for anxious patients.
Frequently asked questions
What score indicates high dental anxiety?
According to the authors of the MDAS, 19 or more out of 25. Such a score indicates high dental anxiety, possibly dental phobia.
Can the test diagnose dental phobia?
No. The questionnaire is a self-assessment. A phobia is diagnosed by a physician or a psychotherapist.
How common is high dental anxiety?
In the UK Adult Dental Health Survey 2009 with about 10,000 adults, roughly 12% scored 19 or more on the MDAS (Humphris et al. 2013). No comparable published MDAS norms exist for Germany.
Are my answers stored?
No. The evaluation runs only in your browser; nothing is sent to us or anyone else.
What can I do about high dental anxiety?
Talk about it openly and start with an appointment just to get to know each other. Depending on the situation, nitrous oxide, twilight sedation or treatment under general anaesthesia can help. For very strong anxiety, psychotherapy can reduce the fear in the long term.
Where does the questionnaire come from?
The Modified Dental Anxiety Scale was published by Humphris, Morrison and Lindsay in 1995 (Community Dental Health 12:143–150). It is freely available from the University of St Andrews.
Sources
- Humphris GM, Morrison T, Lindsay SJE (1995): The Modified Dental Anxiety Scale: validation and United Kingdom norms. Community Dental Health 12:143–150
- University of St Andrews: MDAS translations and scoring instructions
- University of St Andrews: frequently asked questions about the MDAS (cut-off, use)
- Humphris G et al. (2013): UK population norms for the modified dental anxiety scale with percentile calculator. BMC Oral Health 13:29