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This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Dental Cognitions Questionnaire (DCQ). This measure contains 38 items and assesses both frequency and believability of negative cognitions related to dental treatment. The results indicated that the DCQ has good internal consistency, high test-retest reliability, and satisfactory concurrent validity, as indicated by positive associations with indices of anxiety and other cognitive measures (n = 180). Factor analysis revealed a one factor solution. Furthermore, the DCQ discriminated strongly between dental phobics (n = 85) and non-phobic Ss (n = 70). Moreover, it was found that combinations of DCQ items have substantially more explanatory power than did a measure of dental trait anxiety, explaining up to 70.7% of the variance in state anxiety ratings in the dental situation. Overall, it appears that dental phobics have many extremely negative beliefs and self-statements about themselves and about what might happen during treatment. Since certain cognitions seem to play a critical role in fear evocation, diminishing catastrophizing ideation may be an important determinant of adjustment to dental treatment and reduction of psychological distress.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a single session of cognitive restructuring in a sample of phobic dental patients. Fifty-two patients were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: cognitive restructuring (modification of negative cognitions), provision of information (about oral health and dental treatment), and a waiting list control condition. Both interventions maximally lasted one hour. In comparison with the waiting list control condition and the information intervention condition, the cognitive intervention condition not only showed a large decrease in frequency and believability of negative cognitions, but also exhibited a clear decline in dental trait anxiety. Analysis at a follow-up of one year demonstrated a further, drastic reduction in dental anxiety in both intervention conditions, wherein the difference among these conditions was not maintained. It is concluded that it is possible to obtain substantial reductions of dental trait anxiety through a single session of cognitive restructuring. Nevertheless, repeated exposure to the dental situation seems necessary for a further reduction of anxiety.