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.

患有牙科焦虑症的个体对威胁和牙科相关信息表现出有偏见的注意处理。厌恶敏感性和焦虑敏感性都与牙齿恐惧和注意力偏差有关。厌恶敏感性通常与注意力回避相关（Armstrong 等，2014），而焦虑敏感性可能与注意力投入相关（Keogh 等，2001a）。阐明这些结构在牙科焦虑相关注意力偏差中的作用可以为理论模型和/或干预建议提供信息。参与者 ( N= 51) 高牙科焦虑完成了波斯纳范式，以评估对牙科刺激与中性刺激的注意偏差。我们检查了厌恶敏感度和焦虑敏感度是否可以调节注意力偏差的程度。结果表明，厌恶敏感度（残害分量表）和焦虑敏感度（身体关注分量表）在趋势水平和相反方向上都在统计学上缓和了注意偏见的程度。简单效应分析进一步表明，与中性刺激相比，对切割的厌恶敏感性与对牙齿的较少注意偏向相关，这可能表明注意回避，并且在调整焦虑敏感性时仍然如此。相比之下，简单效应分析表明，对身体问题的焦虑敏感性与注意力偏差的程度无关。如果被复制，研究结果强调了厌恶在牙科焦虑症中的潜在作用。