Coping with Oral Surgery by Self-efficacy Enhancement and Perceptions of Control

Abstract

Recent work has suggested that patients' coping could be improved in stressful dental situations if perceptions of self-efficacy and control could be enhanced. To test this hypothesis, 70 first-time third-molar extraction patients were randomly assigned to one of four surgery preparation conditions: standard preparation, oral premedication, relaxation, and a relaxation+efficacy-enhancing feed-back condition in which subjects were given false galvanic skin response (GSR) biofeedback leading them to believe that they were highly skilled at relaxing. Analyses indicated that: (1) all treatments were seen as equally credible (controlling for placebo effects); (2) a priori contrasts showed that both the relaxation-only treatment and the relaxation+efficacy-enhancement treatment were superior to the premedication and standard preparations in raising coping self-efficacy; (3) regardless of treatment condition, increase in reported coping self-efficacy was significantly correlated with pre-operative anxiety, with self-reported peri-operative distress, and with behavioral ratings of peri-operative distress; and (4) the relaxation treatments resulted in lower pre-operative anxiety than the other interventions, and linear contrasts showed significant trends in which the relaxation+efficacy-enhancing condition was superior to the relaxation-only condition, which was in turn superior to the medication condition and the standard preparation in reducing both pre-operative anxiety and behavioral ratings of peri-operative distress. It was concluded that thoughts related to self-confidence and control can be manipulated, and that these thoughts can in part determine how well a person copes in stressful dental situations.

Independent predictors of satisfaction in impacted third molar surgery patients

“…In the case of an inexperienced patient, all staff should insure that the patient is given a positive experience on his or her visit. Providing detailed but moderate information will be helpful for such a patient to reduce ambiguity and increase coping efficacy, which has been demonstrated to reduce preoperative distress and anxiety before ITM surgery (34). In the case of patients with negative previous experiences, it is recommended that the staff ask for an accurate description of the experience and insure the patient is treated carefully and with care.…”

Medo, ansiedade e controle relacionados ao tratamento odontológico

“…Esses resultados sugerem que a percepção de controle possibilita uma melhora na capacidade de enfrentamento dos pacientes odontológicos em situações de medo e/ou ansiedade 7 .…”

Coping Efficacy and Psychological Problems of Children of Divorce

“…Considerable evidence from both laboratory-based experimental studies and field-based studies with children in stress suggests that belief in coping efficacy reduces the negative emotional and behavioral effects of stress (Thompson, 1981). Experimental manipulations of perceived control over aversive events provide convincing evidence that higher efficacy beliefs decrease autonomic arousal and performance impairment in laboratory situations (Glass, Singer, Leonard, Krantz, & Cummings, 1973) and decrease distress in dealing with painful medical procedures (Litt, 1988;Litt, Nye, & Shafer, 1993). Consistent with this model, several field studies have found that higher coping efficacy beliefs are related to lower levels of psychological problems in children and adolescents (Cowen et al, 1991;Thurber & Weisz, 1997).…”