Relationship between dental anxiety level of respondents and subjective impressions of the sound of dental air turbine

摘要

A dental high-speed air turbine handpiece has an influence on sound environment in a dentalrnclinic. The sound of a dental air turbine should be improved from the point of patients’ view,rnsince many patients experience unpleasant feeling with the sound of a dental air turbine. Werninvestigated the impression of sound quality of dental drills in order to improve the sound quality，rnand reported that LAeq, sharpness and fluctuation strength have a significant effect on thernimpression of sound of dental air turbines. In this study, the effect of respondents’ fear level inrnvarious dental treatment situations on the subjective impression of the sound of dental air turbinernwas investigated. The results showed that those who had high dental fear were more sensitive tornthe sounds of dental air turbines than those who had low dental fear. It was suggested that thernsubjective impression of the sound is affected not only by the physical properties of the soundsrnbut also by respondents’ characteristics.