Dental Anxiety and Fear Levels among Outpatients in a Private Dental College in Chennai

TOPIC: Dental anxiety and fear levels among outpatients in a private dental college in Chennai. AIM : The aim is to evaluate dental anxiety and fear levels among patients visiting a private dental-college. MATERIALS REQUIRED: The five points modified Corah‟s Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) and Dental Fear Scale (DFS) were used. Descriptive analysis was done as well as Fisher‟s Exact Test and the Independent-t test to compare the anxiety and fear scores between groups. RESULTS: Two hundred completed questionnaires were included in the study. Results showed that participants were anxious mostly about tooth drilling and local anesthetic injection. The overall response to Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) showed that 53.5% were anxious which is statistically significant. The response to Dental Fear Scale (DFS) showed that moderate fear levels were 75%. The mean MDAS and DFS scores for males were comparatively higher than females. The age group 22-39 showed highest anxiety and fear levels.