Cooperation during dental treatment: the Children's Fear Survey Schedule in Japanese children.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate dental fear and cooperation during dental treatment using the Children's Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS). From the behaviour assessment of regular patients of the Pediatric Dental Clinic in Niigata University Dental Hospital (aged 5-12 years old), the patients were classified into two groups: uncooperative and cooperative. CFSS-DS questionnaires were sent to a total of 295 patients, 186 of which were returned, 61 from the uncooperative group and 125 from the cooperative group. In the uncooperative and the cooperative groups, the CFSS-DS mean total scores were 31.79 and 24.02 (P < 0.05), respectively, and the ratios of the patients whose scores were equal to or more than 35 were 36.1 and 11.2%, respectively. Fear of 'injections' and 'the dentist drilling' had high scores in both groups. The results indicated that there are many uncooperative patients with low dental fear and cooperative patients with high dental fear.