Introduction:

Dental anxiety may be measured with evaluation instruments to obtain objective values, not biased by the evaluator's subjectivity.

Objective:

Characterize the evaluation instruments used to measure dental anxiety in adults.

Methods:

A bibliographic review was conducted in Google Scholar, SciELO and Medline of materials about evaluation instruments used to measure dental anxiety. A total 44 publications were obtained from the period reviewed: 40 papers published in international journals, 1 World Health Organization publication and 3 books.

Data analysis and integration:

A total 6 leading instruments were found in the scientific literature reviewed. These were characterized by pursuing the fundamental goal of diagnosing and classifying anxious subjects by placing them in a given category, mainly according to scales and inventories originally written in English. The Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) is the evaluation instrument most commonly used by researchers and in clinical practice. Reports were not found of instruments designed by researchers from Spanish-speaking countries, but only assessments in Spanish of the already existing ones. In other words, Spanish-speaking populations are scarcely represented in terms of the psychological phenomenon under study, which points to reduced development of psychological evaluation in dental practice.

Conclusions:

Evaluation instruments are scarcely validated in the Spanish language and in Spanish-speaking cultural contexts. Therefore, their use is limited in populations from this continent, with the exception of the Mexican population.

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