Abstract
Objective: To evaluate levels of anxiety in children and adolescents related to age and experience of visits to the dentist using the modified Venham Picture Test (VPTm). Material and Methods: This is a quantitative cross-sectional study with convenience sample. Children and adolescents of both sexes, subdivided into age groups of 6-9 years (A1 and A2) and 10-13 years (B1 and B2), in the waiting room of a Dental Clinic, were grouped according to the experience of visits to the dentist (have been to the dentist / have never been to the dentist). Descriptive statistics were mean, standard deviation and frequency of cases. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) was used for normality analysis, with 95% significance level. Inferential statistics was performed using the Chi-Square and Mann-Whitney tests, with p<0.05. Results: In total, 60 children and 60 adolescents were evaluated, 65 (54.16%) males and 55 (45.83%) females. No differences were observed between genders in groups A1 and A2 (p = 0.30) and B1 and B2 (p = 0.94). The highest means of the VPTm scale were observed in groups A2 and B2 (2.87 ± 2.30 and 2.13 ± 1.29) and the lowest in groups A1 and B1 (1.13 ± 1.45 and 1.20 ± 1.29), respectively. Statistical differences were observed for the mean VPTm scores between age groups A1 and A2 (p = 0.004) and B1 and B2 (p = 0.018). Conclusion: The level of anxiety was inversely proportional to age, so younger children were more anxious; it was also observed that children and adolescents who had never been to the dentist tended to be more anxious.
Highlights
In pediatric dentistry, it is well known that anxiety represents a great barrier to clinical practice, being a precursor to the main non-cooperative events [1]
There seems to be a gap in the evaluation of anxiety prior to dental treatment correlated with the age of patients, establishing comparatives in age groups in childhood and adolescence, especially among those who have had contact with the dental environment and those who have never had such experience [15]
6 years old years old 7 years old years old 8 years old years old 9 yeras old years old Discussion The present study evaluated the level of anxiety in children and adolescents prior to dental treatment using the modified Venham Picture Test (VPTm)
Summary
It is well known that anxiety represents a great barrier to clinical practice, being a precursor to the main non-cooperative events [1]. Several instruments have been developed and used to measure the anxiety of children and adolescents when facing the dental surgeon / pediatric dentist and in the dental environment, among which the Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) [4], the facial image test (FIS) and the Venham Picture Test (VPT), developed in 1977 [6] and adapted to the Brazilian reality, entitled modified VPT [7]. Previous studies have evaluated the level of anxiety in children and adolescents through the original version of the VPT test [8-11,]. There seems to be a gap in the evaluation of anxiety prior to dental treatment correlated with the age of patients, establishing comparatives in age groups in childhood and adolescence, especially among those who have had contact with the dental environment and those who have never had such experience [15]
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