Dental anxiety and influencing factors: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey

Dental treatment still remains as one of the most anxious visits despite awareness between dentists and patients in building trusting relationships. The fear of dental treatment determines the frequency of treatment availed with long-term implications in oral health maintenance.

This study aims to estimate prevalence, extent, and factors influencing dental anxiety in a sample of the adult population visiting a private dental hospital in Chennai, India.

The study sample included 300 consecutive outpatients visiting a private dental hospital in Chennai. Any patient aged 18 and above was considered for the study. A structured custom-made questionnaire composed of ten questions was designed to assess the anxiety levels of dental patients. The level of the patient's anxiety was assessed taking into account various factors that could influence their mental state. This included their age, gender, educational qualification, number/frequency of their dental visits, reason for their visit, past dental experiences, and nature of the dental procedure planned. Enquiries about the related time of anxiety manifestations as well as their preferred anxiety reducing protocols were done as part of the study.

The data analysis was performed using SPSS Version 11.5. Analysis initially was performed with Chi-square test for frequency and reason of visit, with the independent samples t-test used for assessing mean score differences along with Pearson's correlation coefficient.

The study revealed that dental anxiety has a wide prevalence rate encompassing both genders. Distinctive predominance among females (65.2%) and professionals (66.9%) exhibiting a greater degree of anxiety was identified. Pain and extraction have been cited as duress and anxiety inciting procedures (72.6%).

This survey has revealed that age, gender, level of education, and procedure along with visit frequency has a direct effect on the patient's state of mind and anxiety.