Dental anxiety among patients attending King Saud University, College of Dentistry

The aims of this preliminary study were to determine the prevalence of dental anxiety among the dental school clinic patients in Riyadh and to explore the anxiety relationship with educational and behavioral characteristics. The study group consisted of 164 patients randomly selected from the screening clinic of the College of Dentistry. A scale of dental anxiety was developed using a list of items addressed to the respondents. The items were tested for internal consistency and then subjected to factor analysis. ANOVA was used to test the effect of the level of education and frequency of dental visits. The analysis yielded three main factors of dental anxiety, namely, fear of operatory equipment and instrument, lack of confidence in the treatment quality, and fear of cross infection. The percentages of patients who scored moderately on these factors were 38%, 65.5%, and 48%, respectively, while those who scored highly were 8.5%, 17.5%, and 15%, respectively. The frequency of visitsand age did not relate to any of the factors. Patients with a higher education worried more about cross infection. Females showed more fear of instruments and equipment than males. Although it is not justified to generalize the findings, these preliminary results, however, indicated that the level of dental anxiety in this study group is comparable to those in other countries. Other aspects of behavioral characteristics, which deserve further studies, were apparent as a source of dental anxiety.King Saud Universit