Association of Dental anxiety with personality traits among Engineering

Abstract

Introduction : Dental anxiety remains a barrier to dental care for a consistent proportion of thepopulation. The psychological profile of patients dentally anxious but not highly anxious is quitesimilar to normal (non-anxious) patients ' profile. Aims and objectives: To assess personality traits and prevalence of dental anxiety and to findan association between dental anxiety and personality traits in Engineering students. Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 400 engineeringstudents aged 20-26 years with a mean age of 22.39 } 1.05 out of which 230 were males and 170were females. Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) was used to measure Dental anxiety using a5-point Likert scale. Personality trait was assessed using the short-form revised Eysenck personalityQuestionnaire (EPQ-S) which consisted of 48 questions. Statistical analysis was done usingindependent t test and bivariate correlation with statistical significance at 5%. Results: Overall prevalence of dental anxiety was 91% (males 51%, females 40%). The meanscore of dental anxiety for males was 12.4}4.6 and for females 11.2}4.0 and difference wasstatistically significant (p<0.04). Atotal of 214(53.5%) were classifid as Extroversion, 43(10.8%)as Neuroticism, 2(13%) as Lie scale and 34(8.5%) as Psychoticism according to the scale used. Inthe present study there was no association between dental anxiety and personality trait. Conclusion: Generally Dental anxiety is gender related but in the present study males hadhigher dental anxiety compared to females. Of the four different personality traits, dental anxiety didnot show any correlation.