Objective and subjective measures for assessing anxiety in paediatric dental patients

Anxiety has been defined as a nonspecific feeling of apprehension towards a concrete situation that does not necessarily involve a previous experience. Dental anxiety can prevent patients from cooperating fully during dental treatment. Given that there is a connection between dental anxiety and uncooperative behaviour, it is important for dentists to be able to assess anxiety in their patients. There are many methods for such assessment, and in children they depend on age and intellectual development. These measures can be objective or subjective, depending on the method used to quantify the degree of anxiety. The aim of this literature review was to analyse the objective and subjective scales that are used most commonly to assess the degree of anxiety of children in a dental setting.

Knowing the degree of anxiety of dental children is important in order to guide them through their dental experience. Their level of cooperation will also improve and anxiety will be reduced as well.