Factors Affecting Dental Fear and Anxiety in Children: A Cross Sectional Study in Tunisia North Africa

Abstract

Introduction : Anxiety among patients , during dental treatment , remains one of the biggest challenges faced by dentists , considering that it impeds the achievement of clinical procedures . this situation may lead patients to stop their treatment and thus complicates their oral health condition . Materiels and methods : A cross sectional study was conducted in the department of pediatric dentistery in Tunis from august to september 2017 on a simple of 360 couples ( mother / child ) . the child’s and mother’s level of anxiety were evaluated according to various parameters using 2 fear assessment venham picture test for children and Corah dental anxiety scale for mothers . Results : 33.9% of children were anxious. a significant relationship between the child’s anxiety and the child’s age (p=0.01) and gender (p=0.031) was found , on the other hand 57.1% of mothers who feel that their children are afraid of the dentist are anxious. Conclusions : During children’s dental care , anxiety has always been one of the biggest obstacles encountered by specialits in pediatric dentistery . it is important to care about this symptom to develop a good psychological approch with the young patients