Assessment of Relationship between Pain and Anxiety Following Dental Extraction— A Prospective Study

Objective—Anxiety and expected dental pain are the main reasons for avoiding any dental treat-ment by general population. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the various factors which can in-crease the anxiety and its association with pain perception of patients following dental extraction. Material and Methods—We had included 100 patients in our study who were undergoing ortho-dontic treatment and required extraction of either 34 or 44. Pain and anxiety levels after extrac-tion were assessed with a visual analog scale (VAS) and an anxiety questionnaire consisting of eleven questions. Results—The mean VAS score for the entire study group was 16.23 ± 1.28 with statistically significant differences between genders, and was high in females and no statistically significant differences between different age groups. The mean anxiety score was 10.64 ± 3.12. This was significantly higher in women (P = 0.005), but there was no statistically significant dif-ferences between different age groups. There was a statistically significant correlation between VAS and total anxiety score (P < 0.001) as well as each question, except for question number 4, 8 and 9 in men. Conclusion—Although most patients had experienced limited pain, there was a sig