Umair Wahid, Muhammad Amin, Ziaullah Choudhry, Muhammad Adeel Ahmed.
Dental anxiety level of patients presenting to operative dentistry department.
Pak Oral Dental J Jan ;35(4):675-80.

Dental anxiety is a fear of visiting a dental health care provider for preventive or therapeutic care that leads to deterioration in oral health. The aim of this study was to measure the dental anxiety levels of patients presenting to the Operative dentistry department of Dental Section Dow International Medical College. It was a cross sectional study conducted between December 2014 and February 2015. Norman Corah’s dental anxiety scale was used to measure the anxiety levels of patients.1 A questionnaire was developed based on this scale and a valid record of 383 forms was obtained. Amongst 383 patients, 125 were male patients (32%) while 258(67%) were female. Descriptive analysis was performed. Frequencies and cross tab calculations were carried out using SPSS version 20. Among other stressors, dental handpiece stood out as the most frightening. 12% of the respondents replied that they would get extremely anxious, making them feel physically sick while anticipating the use of a dental drill. Result showed that most of the patients (49%) had moderate dental anxiety that could be managed by simple non pharmacological means and counselling. While only 5% and 8% of the patients had high and severe (phobia) dental anxiety respectively. The mean dental anxiety level was 9.35 with Standard Deviation of ±3.06. More females had severe dental anxiety as compared to males (9% as compared to 5%).

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