Syeda Zeenat Raza Rizvi, Syed Muhammad Zulfiqar Hyder Naqvi, Syed Imtiaz Ahmed Jafry, Syed Mohsin Abbas Abidi.
Dental Anxiety and its Associated Factors among patients Visiting Outpatient Department of Different Tertiary Care Dental Hospitals of Karachi.
Ann Abbasi Shaheed Hosp Karachi Med Dent Coll Jan ;24(3):265-70.

Objective: To assess dental anxiety and its associated factors among patients visiting OPD of different tertiary care dental hospitals of Karachi. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2018 to November 2018 in two public and two private dental colleges of Karachi namely Karachi Medical and Dental College, Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ibad Khan Institute of Oral Health Sciences, Hamdard Dental College and Baqai Dental College. Being aged 18 years of either gender were the inclusion criteria whereas refusal for a written informed con-sent was the exclusion criterion. After checking eligibility and taking written informed consent, a total of247 participants were interviewed by the principal investigator using a questionnaire which included Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale and Dental Concerns Assessment. Data were entered and analyzed on SPSS version 20. Inferential analysis was performed using chi-square test and Mann-Whitney U test after checking normality. The significance level was kept at 0.05.Results: The study findings revealed that 2.4% of the patients interviewed were severely anxious,8.1% were highly anxious, 37.2% were moderately anxious while 54.3% were not at all anxious. Moreover, patients with younger age and monthly household income between 16000 and 75000 rupees had significantly higher mean dental anxiety scores. Conclusion: The study findings revealed that up to 45.7% patients were anxious up to some degree. There is a need for better understanding of factors potentially increasing anxiety in dental patients in order to avoid them as negative experiences in past are known to trigger dental anxiety in future.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com