EPQ Planning

Initial planning
Ideas For EPQ Areas of interest of mine
- Dentistry
- Animals
- Biology
Dentistry
why should I pick it?
It is the profession I would like to study after school and it effects everyone. I have done work
experience at a dental practice and have my own experiences that I can draw upon to make a valid
essay. Dentistry has a large range of possible topics and with information easily obtained online and
at college, so information would not be hard to find.
Cons
A potentially boring subject to many who do not have an interest in the area, so the essay must
clearly impact them, in order to make it relevant enough to read. Dentistry, as a health care
profession has patient confidentiality so there is a limit to the level of information I can obtain.
Ideas
- Causes of Dental Phobias
- The changes to dentistry within the NHS
- Why dentistry is constantly shifting between NHS and Private practice.
- Looking at the newest technology in dentistry and seeing how beneficial they are to patients.
Animals
why should I pick it?
I have always had a strong interest in animals, fascinated by the fact that probability shaped animals
into developing such distinct and clever adaptations to survive. Some of which can be useful.
Therefore with much unknown about the world of animals there is a lot of scope to investigate
about them. There are many documentaries and journals and academic papers, written on animals,
making second and third hand evidence easy to obtain.
Cons
Short of an expedition, primary data will be very hard to find. Furthermore, topics that I may want to
cover, may be hard to evaluate as results can be interpreted differently. Not very applicable to the
course I would like to study at university.
Ideas
- With such a large number of species unknown to science, should more be done to discover these
animals?
- How has animals adaptions help advance science?
Biology
why should I pick it?
By choosing biology I would be able to pick a medical related topic and therefore have an EPQ
somewhat related to my uni course. There are plenty of research done in this area and I can have
the support of my biology teachers. Furthermore, biology would allow me to look into the more
scientific side of research.

Cons
Again it may be hard to gain 1st hand evidence and the topics may be hard to relate to dentistry. It is
a broad topic and a lot of information must be known to fully understand a topic, therefore it may
be hard to stay within the word count, if I wanted an in-depth essay.
Ideas
- The understanding and utilising of plant cells
- How do we genetically adapt plants, to better suit environments and how effective is this?
- Which plants have the greatest potential for bio-fuels?

My chosen topic is dentistry.

Chosen topic Dental phobias
Ideas for research
Primary Data
- Student questionnaires
- Gains a better understanding of the relevance of the topic
- Allows me to get primary data, in order to back up second hand data I have found.
- Allows me to get data on questions I have not been able to find on the internet.
- Work Experience
- I have done over 4 years of work experience in dentistry and have been in General dental
practices, Police Custody Nursing suits, Dental Clinics and Maxillofacial major and Minor surgery
- By writing down my experiences, I can use them as anecdotal evidence in order to give my EPQ
context
- My work experience will help me gain an insight into the emotions of someone with a dental
phobia, and also how that situation was dealt with by the practice staff.
Secondary Data
- University Journals and published books
- By doing this, I will gain a great academic understanding of dental phobias and anxieties, and gain
invaluable sources of information. Furthermore, many of these books have been reviewed and
therefore I can get a sense of the reliability of the information they give.
- NHS Websites
- These will help supply me with facts and figures, which will, alongside my primary data, will give
essay relevance and context.
Tertiary data
- News stories
- By looking into the news and reports, I will be able to find a mix of facts and interpretation,
giving a good over view of the entire essay.

Primary data
Survey
Example subject 20

Analysis
The aims of the survey was to gain a better understanding of the prevalence of dental phobias and
anxieties, as I feel that a much larger and more complex survey must have been given to begin to
understand the causes of phobias and there treatments. Therefore, choosing this shorter survey,
allowed me to interview a larger number of people in a short space of time. Giving a simple yet
accurate response.
They survey allowed me to evaluate not only the prevalence of phobias within my college, but also,
what people found the scariest. Therefore, within my essay, I could say how many people are
affected by it and suggest some basic ways in which there fears could be lessened. I had asked if
people were introverts or extroverts in order to validate some past research. As from my results (See
below). I was able to support Eysenck's claim that introverts were more susceptible to phobias. As
despite more extroverts having the phobia. I found a higher proportion of introverts questioned had
a phobia than the extroverts.
Dental
Phobia?

Why they
are scared

Age of
phobia

Know anyone
scared of the

Scariest
thing about

Do they
have any

Introvert
or

Dental
Phobia

Subject
Number
1
2
3
4
5
6

of dentists
N
N
N
Y
N
Y

N
N
N
Equipment
N
Equipment
& Mouth

Y
N

Equipment
N

Dentist
Lack of
control

develop
ment
N
N
N
N

dentist
Y
Y
N
7 Y
Y
4 Y

7
8
9
10
Y

4 Y
Y
3 Y
6 Y

11
12
13
14
15

16
17
18
19
2
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32

N
N
N
N

N
N
N
N

Y
Y
N
N
N
Y
N
N
Y
N

N
N
N
N
Equipment
&
Stereotypes
Equipment
N
N
N
Equipment
N
N
Equipment
N

4 N
3 Y
N
N
Y
3 Y
Y
Y
8 N
N

N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N

N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N

N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N

Y
Y
N
N
Y
Y
Y
Y

N
N
N
N
N

Y
N
Y
Y

dentistry

phobias

Extrovert

Treatment
Pain
Dentist
Treatment
Nothing
Treatment
& Body
Lack of
Control
Treatment
Lack of
Control

N
Y
Y
Y
Y

E
E
E
I
E

N
N
N
Y
N

Y
Y

E
I

Y
N

Dentist
Lack of
Control
Nothing
Nothing
Treatment

Y
Y
Y
Y

E
I
E
E

N
N
N
N

Treatment
Pain
Treatment
Nothing
Nothing
Treatment
Treatment
Nothing
Treatment
Treatment
Lack of
control
Treatment
Dentist
Nothing
Nothing
Treatment
Treatment
Treatment

N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
N
Y
N

I
I
E
E
I
E
I
E
E
I

Y
Y
N
N
N
Y
N
N
Y
N

Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y

I
E
E
E
I
I
I
E

N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N

Statistical Analysis
Average age of Phobia development

% who know someone with dental phobia

Number of introverts
Number of Extroverts
% of Introverts with Dental Phobia
% of Extroverts with dental phobias
% of people with a phobia
Number of Introverts with dental phobia
Number of Extroverts with dental phobia
People scared of
Treatment
Lack of control
Dentist
pain
Nothing
Body

72
13
19
31
26
84.375
4
5

15
4
3
1
9
1

Number scared of the dentists

Number scared of equipment
Number scared of Body
Number scared of Lack of Control
Number scared of Dentist
Number scared of stereotype

% of people with Dental Phobia

What people find scary about

the dentist

People scared of

Treatment

Lack of control

Dentist

pain

Nothing

Work Experience

32
31
30
29
28
27
26
25
24
% of Introverts with Dental
Phobia

% of Extroverts with dental

phobias

Example 1
whilst performing work experience at a General Dental Practice, a lady came in shaking and crying.
One of the dental nurses, asked me to help her fill out her patient registration forms. Whilst talking
to her, I found out that when she was little, a dentist had slapped her and she hadnt been to the
dentist since. For the last 40 years, the lady had been too scared of the dentist. The dental staff all
reassured her and tried joking with her, to take her mind of her fear and reassured her. In fact, no
treatment actually happened that day, instead the staff used the appointment time to let the lady
get to know them and then asked if she wanted to re-book her appointment and eventually work
towards treatment.
Example 2
whilst at a hospital dental clinic, shadowing an oral surgeon, I witnessed a reinforcement of a dental
fear and how the staff coped with the situation. The lady was already distressed before the
treatment and unfortunately during the treatment her inner cheek was burnt by a malfunction drill.
This unfortunately conditioned her fear further. However, the dental staff tried to reduce this, but
calmly explaining to her what happened, what they were going to do and also that it was very
unlikely. Preventing her building up misconceptions. Furth more, in her eyes the helped her, as they
sorted the situation out. (Whilst admittedly they had been partly responsible for it).
Example 3