Dental fear/anxiety in Czech preschoolers: relationship to gender, age, location of residence, dental status and previous treatment experience
Abstrakt
Aim: Dental fear/anxiety (DFA) may considerably complicate treatment in pediatric dentistry. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess DFA in Czech preschoolers aged 3-6 and its relationship to gender, age, location of residence, dental status and previous treatment.
Methods: The study involved 460 children from preschools at four location types selected according to WHO criteria for oral health surveys. DFA was assessed using the Venham picture test (VPT, score range 0-8) prior to the evaluation of dental status using the dmfs (decayed, missing, filled surface) index.
The significance level was set to 5 %. Results: While 46 % of children presented a zero VPT score, the mean value was 1.6+-2.1.
Significantly higher levels of DFA were found in girls (p0.05). A weak positive correlation was found between the level of DFA and dmfs (r=0.116, p<0.05).
Previous filling placement resulted in a significantly lower level of DFA compared to tooth extraction. Conclusions: DFA was common in Czech preschoolers.
Higher levels of DFA were found in girls, children aged 3-4, children from rural areas, children with a higher dmfs index and children who had a tooth extracted.