Original Article

The role of age, gender, education and experiences on dental anxiety

  • Elif Aybala Oktay
  • Mustafa Murat Koçak
  • Güneş Şahinkesen
  • Fulya Toksoy Topçu

Received Date: 28.05.2009 Accepted Date: 11.06.2009 Gulhane Med J 2009;51(3):145-148

The aim of this study was to investigate the dental fear and anxiety levels and predisposing personal characteristics of the patients admitting to the Center of Dental Sciences of Gulhane Military Medical Academy. In the study, 400 patients were asked to complete a questionnaire. The survey consisted of two sections. The first section requested sociodemographic information of the participants including age, gender, education level, frequency of dental visits and knowledge about the first dental visit. The second section comprised of Corah’s Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS). The analysis revealed that there was statistically significant difference between the anxiety scores and previous traumatic experiences (p<0.05). No significant differences were found between the gender, age, education levels and the anxiety scores (p>0.05).

Keywords: Anxiety, dentistry, traumatic experience