Evaluation of Dental Anxiety and Fear in Patients who Admitted to the Faculty of Dentistry Which Patients are More Risky in terms of Dental Anxiety.

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Burkay YAKAR
Türkkan Öztürk KAYGUSUZ
Edibe PİRİNÇCİ

Abstract

Background: Dental anxiety and fear make the dental operationand the treatment difficult. Beside that it causes the delays orabsence in the dental appointments so it leads to problems for oraland dental health. The aim of this study was to investigate thefrequency of dental anxiety, the factors affecting dental anxietyand the effects of dental anxiety on oral dental health of theparticipants.Methodology: We conducted a hospital-based, cross-sectional studyamong 342 patients attending the outpatient clinic of a tertiarydentistry hospital. Dental anxiety and trait anxiety levels of theparticipants measured using MDAS and STAI scales. Weconducted the student t-test, One-way Anova and Tukey’s post hocfor the analysis of our data. The Pearson’s correlation analysis hasbeen used for the analysis of two different quantitative data obtainfrom MDAS and STAI scales.Results: The age average of 342 participant of our research was34,41±11,78. 59,1% of our participants was women. (n=202)Dental anxiety was existing in the 42,1% of the participants(n=144). 56,4% of the participants have had a hard and painfuldental treatment experiences. 15,2% of our participants (n=52) hadMDAS 19 point or more.Conclusions: High and statistically significant dental anxietyscores have been detected for the patients who are women,housewives, who had uneasy and painful dental treatment stories,who have personel inclinations to the anxiety. Examinationsdirected to the factors which would increase the dental anxiety,may prevent possible complications and also the risk carried by thepatients related to the dental health may be estimated with the helpof this kind of examinations.

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Original Article
Author Biographies

Burkay YAKAR, Medicine, Elazığ, Turkey

Fırat University, Faculty of
Medicine, Department of Family
Medicine, Elazığ, Turkey

Türkkan Öztürk KAYGUSUZ, Education, Elazığ, Turkey

Fırat University, Faculty of
Medicine, Department of Medical
Education, Elazığ, Turkey

Edibe PİRİNÇCİ, Health, Elazığ, Turkey

Fırat University, Faculty of
Medicine, Department of Public