Dental fear and its possible relationship with periodontal status in Chinese adults: a preliminary study

BMC Oral Health

Dongying Xuan¹  Jincai Zhang¹  Hanxiao Lin²  Yuxia Yan³  Xin Huang¹  Yeungyeung Liu¹ 

[1] Department of Periodontology, Guangdong Provincial Stomatological Hospital, Southern Medical University, S366 Jiangnan Boulevard, 510280 Guangzhou, China;Department of Endocrinology, Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China;Department of Statistics, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China

关键词: Oral health behaviors;    Periodontal disease;    Dental fear;   

Others  :  1122773
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6831-15-18

 received in 2014-09-06, accepted in 2015-01-15,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

The aim of the present study was to describe the characteristics of dental fear of Chinese adult patients with periodontal disease and provide information for clinical assessment.

Methods

A total of 1203 dental patients completed questionnaires that included Corach’s Dental Anxiety Scales (DAS), Dental Fear Survey (DFS) and the short-form Dental Anxiety Inventory (S-DAI). Among all the patients, 366 cases were self-reported periodontal disease. The general characteristics were described, such as socio-demographics, dental attendances and oral health behaviors. The statistical analysis was performed by t-test, Mann–Whitney U test and linear regression respectively to evaluate correlations between dental fear and general characteristics according to the three scales.

Results

The prevalence of dental fear was 74% among 1203 patients, 23.4% of total with high dental fear, while 27.3% in the patients with periodontal disease. The average score of DAS and DFS for patients with periodontal disease was significantly higher than those without periodontal disease. The regression analysis indicated that gender, age, periodontal status, dental attendances and oral health behaviors were correlated with dental fear. Among 366 patients with periodontal disease, gender, dental attendances and oral health behaviors had correlation with dental fear. The analysis of DFS scale exhibited that ‘drilling with handpiece’ and ‘injecting the anesthetic’ were the most important factors to contribute to dental fear.

Conclusions

There was high prevalence of dental fear in Chinese adult patients, particularly in patients with periodontal disease, and high level of dental fear may lead to poor periodontal status.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Liu et al.; licensee BioMed Central.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

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