ABSTRACT

Despite modern technological applications in dental treatment, dental practices still continue as one of the stressor concerns. In this study, dental anxiety (DA) levels and associated factors were investigated. The study included 588 dental patients between 14-30 years old and applied to the dental health unit of primary care in March-September 2012. Participants were asked to fill out the questionnaire examining sociodemographic features, previous dental history and "Modified Dental Anxiety Scale" measuring dental anxiety. Approximately seventy five percent of the study sample was comprised of 20-25 years old patients. When the state and frequency of going to dentist were queried 17.5% of patients had never gone, only 6.1% emphasized that they had visited every 6 months regularly. The ratio of individuals had high DA levels was detected as 14.3%. The statistically significant difference was detected in terms of educational levels (p=0.013), the frequency of dental visits (p=0.047), problematic dental history (p=0.005) and complications after dental treatment (p=0.017) among the high DA patients comparing to normal ones. It was ascertained that enhancing the educational level is one of the significant factors to prevent the DA development. Questioning of past dental history and execution of proper approach to mitigate the effects of bad experiences before oral and dental health practices will reduce the related anxiety levels. The compliance process of dental treatment will be helpful not just for dental health, but also to protect other systemic diseases.