Abstract
Aim. To assess the dental anxiety level among dental, medical, and pharmacy students of MAHSA University, Malaysia. Materials and Methods. A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted among 1500 undergraduate students of MAHSA University. The Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) was used to measure dental anxiety among the study population. The responses were assessed by 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 to 5. The level of anxiety was categorized into lowly anxious (5–11), moderately anxious (12–18), and severely anxious ≥19. Out of 1500 students enrolled, 1024 students (342 males and 682 females) completed and returned the questionnaire having response rate of 68.26%. Results. There was a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001) when the mean dental anxiety scores were compared among the three faculties and dental students had lowest mean score (11.95 ± 4.21). The fifth year (senior) dental students scored significantly (P = 0.02) lower mean anxiety score as compared to the first dental students (junior). The students were anxious mostly about tooth drilling and local anesthetic injection. Conclusions. Dental students have a significantly low level of dental anxiety as compared with medical and pharmacy students. Incorporation of dental health education in preuniversity and other nondental university curriculums may reduce dental anxiety among the students.
Highlights
In the field of behavior science, the terms dental fear and anxiety are highly related and often used interchangeably in the literature
Dental anxiety might affect dentist-patient relationship, resulting in ambiguous diagnosis of the genuine dental problem and delay in the dental treatment by the patients which results in deterioration of their oral health [3, 4]
The present study was conducted to investigate the dental anxiety among undergraduate students of MAHSA University, Malaysia, by using Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) questionnaire [13]
Summary
In the field of behavior science, the terms dental fear and anxiety are highly related and often used interchangeably in the literature. Normal fear is a physiological, behavioral, and emotional response to a feared object or situation [1]. Pathological anxiety is characterized by the loss of the original signaling function of the anxious response, which can be triggered by objectively harmless situations. In the last 2-3 decades, dentistry has made recent advances in the curative as well as in the preventive aspect for providing better dental care to the patients. These advances have not been able to eradicate or markedly diminish dental fear and anxiety among patients. Dental anxiety might affect dentist-patient relationship, resulting in ambiguous diagnosis of the genuine dental problem and delay in the dental treatment by the patients which results in deterioration of their oral health [3, 4]
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