Anxiety in Dental Patients

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of self-reported anxiety levels related to dental procedures amongst dental patients using Revised Corah’s Dental Anxiety Scale, (DAS-R).

Study Design: A cross sectional descriptive study

Place and Duration of Study: This study was carried out at the Medical, Dental and Allied Health Professionals’ College from October 2010 and April 2011.

Materials and Methods: 485 patients comprised the study sample. All those patients who consented to participate and were 12-65 years of age were included. They were scored for anxiety using revised Corah’s Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS-R).

Results: The mean DAS score for our study population was 9.91 (SD 3.29), while the modal score was 12. Based on the DAS Score, distribution of the respondents was: Non anxious - 63.1% (n=304); Anxious - 33.2% (n=160); and Phobic - 3.7% (n=18). Other findings are detailed subsequently. We found that self-reported-phobic levels were higher in males compared to females, while the DAS scores on the contrary were higher for females than males.  

Conclusion: We found that DAS score were higher (more anxiety) in females than in males. Interestingly, we also found that self-reported dental phobia was observed more often in males than females.