Fear and anxiety in dental treatments and psychological interventions

Abstract

About 11 to 20% of the population has phobia of the dentists. The main aim of this study is to identify the factors associated with fear of dentist. Methods: The study included 98 subjects who regularly attending a private practice dentists located in Seville during 13 months. A cross-sectional clinical study was carried out involving the administration of anxiety scales , a sociodemographic questionnaire and Dental fear was measured using the questionare of dental fear (CMD) and using the question: 'How afraid are you of visiting a dentist? Results: We applied a factor analysis and we extrated four dimensión from the questionare of dental fear: health care, attitud of dentist , negligence and organization. Only attitud of dentist (OR=2.4(IC95% 1.1-5.4); p=0.02), negligence ( OR=5.3(IC95% 2.0- 13.1); p=0.0001) and anxiety (OR=1.3(IC95% 1.3- 1.7); p=0.01) showed assocaction with dental fear. Conclusions: the anxiety, negligence and attitud of dentists dimesniosn was associted with fear of dentist.