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Aversive parental experience and disregard for primary dentition were identified as serious obstacles to be addressed in order for any new programme to be effective. Despite these obstacles, new mothers were open to information and strategies to reduce the prevalence of early childhood caries.

The Dental Fear Survey (DFS), a paper and pencil instrument for assessing dental fear and avoidance, has been widely used and validated in fear studies in the US. However, before such instruments are used in countries and cultures dissimilar to the one in which it was developed, they should be cross-validated in that culture. The present study is an examination of the DFS response characteristics in a group of 374 Brazilian university students. Factor analysis of the DFS revealed three factors essentially identical to those found among university students in the US and in Singapore, as well as among US adult dental patients. Higher DFS scores were significantly associated longer intervals since last dental visit. These results are taken as evidence that the DFS performs in this Brazilian sample very much as it does in other samples; and is thus, a valid indicator of dental fear at least among Brazilian university students.

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