Dental anxiety among 18-yr-olds in Norway. Prevalence and related factors

The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of dental anxiety at the time when adolescents are leaving the public dental service, and to explore the relationship at this stage between dental anxiety and some possible etiologic factors. The sample consisted of 571 18-yr-olds in high school who completed a questionnaire and three psychometric scales, the Dental Fear Scale (DFS), the Dental Beliefs Survey (DBS) and the Geer Fear Scale (GFS), in the classroom. The relationship between dental anxiety (DFS and DBS) and a total of nine possible etiologic factors was explored by the use of stepwise regression analyses, and risk estimates (odds ratio) were calculated in cross-tables. There were significant sex differences for DFS and for GFS, but not for DBS. Nineteen percent of the total sample were classified as having high dental anxiety (DFS > 59). Previous experiences of pain, phobic anxiety indexed by GFS and pain at the last dental visit entered into the stepwise regression models of both dental anxiety indices explaining 50% of the variance of DFS, but only 18% of DBS. Students who reported more than one previous experience of pain were 9.9 times more likely to report high dental anxiety as recorded by DFS than the rest of the group. The corresponding risk factor for DBS was 3.4.