Abstract
BackgroundDental anxiety is one of the most common fears that can eventually lead to avoidance of dental care. Knowing how students will respond to dental treatment will aid in increasing their awareness of oral health and overcoming this fear. The present study measured the prevalence of dental anxiety among dental, medical, and nursing students in Riyadh city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.MethodsA cross-sectional study including undergraduate dental, medical, and nursing students at King Saud University and Almajmaa University was conducted to assess dental anxiety using the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale. Descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations, and percentages were calculated. Group comparisons were analyzed using t-tests and analysis of variance. Multiple group comparisons were conducted using Tukey’s post-hoc test. P < 0.05 was considered as the significance level.ResultsTwo hundred twenty-four participants completed the questionnaire. Medical students accounted for most of the responses (40.6%), followed by nursing (31.7%), and dental students (27.7%). There was no significant difference in dental anxiety with regard to gender. Dental students exhibited the least dental anxiety. A significant difference was found between students with good dental experiences compared with those who had bad dental experiences.ConclusionDental students had the lowest level of anxiety and anxiety levels were affected by previous dental visits. Increasing awareness and knowledge about oral health, regular dental education, and incorporating dental knowledge into university curriculums can aid in eliminating the fear of dentistry among health sciences students.
Highlights
Dental anxiety is one of the most common fears that can eventually lead to avoidance of dental care
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of dental anxiety among dental, medical, and nursing students in Riyadh city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Findings of this study revealed that dental students had a lower level of dental anxiety than medical students, both groups’ scores indicate they were not dentally anxious at all
Summary
Dental anxiety is one of the most common fears that can eventually lead to avoidance of dental care. Despite advancements and new technologies used in dental treatment, dental anxiety is still considered one of the most common fears [1] It can be defined as an exaggerated psychological apprehensive response of an individual to perceived dental treatment and can affect people of any gender, age, or social status [2, 3]. Dental anxiety was associated with traumatic past dental experiences, irregular dental visits, and a lack of dental awareness [2]. It can affect the dentist-patient relationship, causing an increase in chair time, inaccurate diagnosis, and treatment setbacks [5,6,7]. Dental anxiety may affect the dentist as well, by increasing the dentist’s level of stress while providing dental treatment [5].
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