Dental fear and sense of coherence among 18‐yr‐old adolescents in Finland

Abstract

The aim was to investigate whether dental fear was associated with the sense of coherence (SOC) among 18-yr-old adolescents (n = 777). Cross-sectional data from a prospective cohort of a random sample of families from Finland and their first-born children were used. Dental fear was measured using the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale and categorized as high dental fear for scores of 19-25 and as no to moderate dental fear for scores of 5-18. Sense of coherence was measured using a 13-item version of Antonovsky's Sense of Coherence Questionnaire, dichotomized as scores 13-63 for weak SOC and as scores of 64-91 for strong SOC. Gender and education were included as background factors in the logistic regression analyses. The prevalence of high dental fear was 8%. Those reporting high dental fear reported more often a weaker SOC than did those with no to moderate dental fear (69% vs. 31%, OR = 2.5, 95% CI = 1.4-4.4), also when adjusted for gender and education (OR = 2.2, 95% CI = 1.2-3.9). According to the theory of salutogenesis, as proposed by Antonovsky, SOC is a resource instrument especially in situations of tension or strain and hence a strong SOC might protect against high dental fear.

Experiences of Dental Care and Dental Anxiety in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…According to a study on adolescents, those with higher dental fear have a weaker SOC than those with less dental fear [32]. In adult ASD extremely low SOC scores have been reported [33], but unfortunately SOC was not measured in our participants.…”

Dental fear affects adolescent perception of interaction with dental staff

“…Eighteen‐year‐old Finnish adolescents with high dental fear perceived the interaction with dental staff as more negative and felt more insecure than did others when assessed using factors ‘kind atmosphere and mutual communication’, ‘roughness’, ‘insecurity’, ‘trust and safety’, and ‘shame and guilt’, revealed from the PDSIQ. Weak SOC, which we have previously shown to be associated with dental fear , was associated with all five factors of the PDSIQ (Table ). However, it did not eliminate the association of dental fear with the perception of the interaction with dental staff in most factors (Table ).…”

“…The effect of dental fear on the dropout rate was studied between the ages of 15 and 18 yr, but the non‐participants did not differ significantly from the participants concerning both dental fear and SOC. Instead, male participants responded significantly less frequently than did female participants .…”

“…Another weakness of the study is that, typical of very long-term follow-up studies, the retention rate decreased during the study. No effect of dental fear on the discontinuation has been found since the first measurement at age 15 yr (16).…”

“…Recently, dental fear was reported to be associated with adolescents' sense of coherence (SOC) , and SOC was associated with young adults' social interaction . Sense of coherence is the key concept of Antonovsky 's salutogenic theory and has been shown to be associated with how one copes with a stressful situation .…”