Dental anxiety among university students and its correlation with their field of study

Abstract

Objective:This study was designed to investigate the subjective ratings of dental anxiety levels among university students enrolled at Jordan University of Science and Technology. In addition, the present study aimed to explore the sources of dental anxiety and the impact of gender on the perceived dental anxiety and the correlation between field of study and dental anxiety level.Material and Methods:The Modified Corah Dental Anxiety Scale was used to measure dental anxiety among the study population. Six hundred subjects were recruited into the study from Jordanian undergraduate students from the faculties of Medicine, Engineering, and Dentistry.Results:Five hundred and thirty five complete questionnaires were returned, which accounts for a response rate of 89.2%. The totals of the mean anxiety scores were the following: Medical students, 13.58%; Engineering students, 13.27% and dental students, 11.22%. About 32% of the study population has scored 15 or more. Dental students had the lowest percentage of those who scored 15 or more. Surprisingly, the medical students were responsible for the highest percentage of those who scored 15 or above. Although women demonstrated statistically higher total dental anxiety scores than men (p= 0.03), the difference between both genders was small and could be clinically insignificant. The students were anxious mostly about tooth drilling and local anesthetic injection.Conclusion:Lack of adequate dental health education may result in a high level of dental anxiety among non-dental university students in Jordan. Further studies are required to identify the correlates of dental anxiety among university students.

Prevalence of and factors associated with dental anxiety among medical and dental students of the Northern State Medical University, Arkhangelsk, North-West Russia

“…This was expected and is in agreement with results from other studies [16,17,21]. One obvious explanation is that the level of knowledge about dentistry, severity of dental diseases and possible inconvenience while receiving dental treatment is higher among dental students.…”

“…Female students from both faculties showed higher DAS scores than men, which is in line with previous studies [16,19–22]. It has been postulated that women are more susceptible to perceived threats or danger, and that they may describe their fears more openly; while men may be more emotionally stoic and hide their anxieties [37].…”

“…In addition, conversion tables can be used to compare our findings with results of MDAS from other studies [36]. Nonetheless, levels of DA in our medical and dental students were found to be lower [16,18,21,23] or comparable [15] with that reported in studies among other medical or dental students.…”

“…Researchers have used global questions [19], different scales [15,16,24,26] or different DAS score cut-offs to assess DA [21], which may complicate the comparability of these studies with our results. The DAS and MDAS are the most frequently used tools to measure DA in university students.…”

“…Reported predictors for DA have included self-reported need for dental treatment, tobacco use, abnormal attitudes towards food, insufficient oral hygiene, less frequent dental visits and the anticipation of pain [19,24,25]. No relationships between DA and clinically assigned oral health have been studied in young university students, but some studies on other factors showed that female students had higher DA than male students [16,19–22], whereas other studies found no sex differences [15,23,24]. …”