EVALUATION OF DENTAL ANXIETY: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Anxiety is frequently associated to dental care and the identification of anxious patients is highly important for the correct and safe therapeutic management of them. The aim of this study is the identification the level of dental anxiety of a group of patients addressing the dental care office within the Faculty of Dental Medicine of Iasi. Material and method: The cross-sectional study was carried out in 2019 on a sample of 53 patients aged between 18 and 64. To appreciate the anxiety level and the causes of this phenomenon, we used a specially designed questionnaire: Dental Anxiety Assessment Questionnaire. The data were statistically processed by SPSS.17 software for Windows. Results: Most patients, namely 52.8% consider that before their dental treatment they face a state of anxiety, 49% say they have a moderate anxiety level and only 15% consider themselves as severely anxious. The most frequent cause of this dental phobia correlates either with a traumatizing dental experience in the past (43.3%), or with their contact with a dentist lacking empathy (28.3%). Among the dental maneuvers, dental extraction is considered as the one inducing the highest stress level, while the fear of injection and pain represents the main reasons for dental anxiety. Conclusions: This study highlights the characteristics of dental anxiety in adult patients and identifies a common clinical picture of the anxious patient. The purpose of our study is also to inform the medical community about the frequency of this phenomenon and thus to prevent the negative situations that might appear during the specialized treatment of these subjects.

Keywords

• adult patients
• dental anxiety
• questionnaire