Factors Influencing Dental Fear in Students of Biomedicine

Background: Dental fear is a reaction of an individual to actual or potential painful/harmful procedures in dental practice. There is large variation in reports of dental fear prevalence among university students, implying existence of different factors that influence occurrence of dental fear in various populations. Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate putative factors that may influence extent of dental fear among university students of biomedicine. Methods: This study was designed as cross-sectional investigation. In total, 113 students on study courses on the 3rd, 4th, 5th year of dentistry, and on the 4th, 5th and 6th year of medicine undergraduate program were surveyed at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Serbia. Fear of dentist was measured by the Dental Fear Survey and other variables were generated by questionnaire with questions about socio-demographic characteristics of the participants. Results: Students of biomedicine surveyed in this study did not suffer from dental fear in great extent (median value on the scale was close to the lower limit: 29.5. The only factor that increased risk for developing dental fear in our study was previous traumatic experience with a dentist. Conclusion: Dental fear is not very prevalent among biomedical students. However, main risk factor for dental fear in general population, previous traumatic experience with a dental intervention, also remains primary risk factor in population of biomedical students