ASSESSMENT OF DENTAL ANXIETY LEVEL — A STUDY

Abstract

Anxiety is a usual human reaction encountered in various circumstances and dental treatment not have exception. It is one of the most common problem encountered in the dental practitioner and anxiety complaints are most common psychiatric disorders. Those dental patients which have high level of anxiety present a major management problem, it is imperative to assess level of dental anxiety before treatment for proper management of anxious patients.
This cross sectional study was conducted from January 2017 to June 2017 on 285 patients attending a private dental clinic of Karachi. The Convenience sampling method was used. Ethical consent was taken from every individuals of study. The self-structured close ended questionnaires were distributed to the patients in the reception area to fill in while they were waiting to meet the dentist and the questionnaire was explained to each study participants. The questionnaire was consisted of Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS). The Data was analyzed by using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20. The Chi square test was used to analyze the relationship between socio-demographic profile and dental anxiety level.
The 9.5% participants were not anxious while 7.4% were extremely anxious individuals regarding the treatment that would be done in the oral cavity. But 83.2% were anxious about the dental treatment.
The level of dental anxiety among patients can be minimized with the control of pain, management of behavior, as well as consideration of patient as a whole.