Assessing child dental anxiety: the validity of clinical observations

For children there are few validated psychometric measures of dental anxiety. The study reported here aims to examine the validity of using clinical observations as a measure of child dental fear. 100 children consecutively attending a community clinic were asked to complete the validated Child Fear Survey Schedule (CFSS). After the dental examination both dental nurse and dentist separately assessed the subject's dental fear using a checklist based on the CFSS schedule. High agreement was found between the child, the dentist and dental nurse respectively and principal components analysis suggested that a dual nature of anticipatory dental anxiety existed in children. The findings of this work suggest that clinical observations may be a valid means of assessing child dental anxiety status.