The roles of disgust sensitivity and anxiety sensitivity in attentional bias in dental anxiety

Individuals with dental anxiety show biased attentional processing of threat- and dental-related information. Disgust sensitivity and anxiety sensitivity are both associated with dental fears and attentional biases. Whereas disgust sensitivity is generally associated with attentional avoidance (Armstrong et al., 2014), anxiety sensitivity may be associated with attentional engagement (Keogh et al., 2001a). Elucidating the role of these constructs in dental anxiety-relevant attentional biases could inform theoretical models and/or intervention recommendations. Participants (N = 51) with high dental anxiety completed a Posner paradigm to assess attentional biases to dental versus neutral stimuli. We examined whether disgust sensitivity and anxiety sensitivity moderated degree of attentional bias. Results indicated that both disgust sensitivity (mutilation subscale) and anxiety sensitivity (physical concerns subscale) statistically moderated degree of attentional bias at trend level, and in opposite directions. Simple effects analyses further indicated that disgust sensitivity regarding mutilation was associated with less attentional bias toward dental relative to neutral stimuli, potentially indicating attentional avoidance, and remained so when adjusting for anxiety sensitivity. In contrast, simple effects analysis indicated that anxiety sensitivity regarding physical concerns was not associated with magnitude of attentional bias. If replicated, findings highlight the potential role of disgust in dental anxiety.