Dental Fear of 6-12-year-old Children - Role of Parents, Gender and Age

Aim: To investigate the level of dental fear in middle childhood and the impact of various personal and social factors that contribute to developing dental fear. Materials and methods: The study included sixty-seven 6-12-year-old children and their parents, randomly selected while receiving their treatment at the Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Plovdiv. A modified version of Dental Subscale of the Children’s Fear Survey Schedule (CFSS-DS) was used to assess the dental fear of each patient. An interview was conducted with the parents to gather information about patient’s gender and age, parent’s dental anxiety (Corah’s dental anxiety scale-DAS) and pre-appointment preparation of children. Results: The results show that the mean of CFSS-DS for children is 30.28±1.17. Concerning the age and gender the comparison between groups of patients with different levels of dental fear demonstrate no significant difference (p>0.05). 60.6%±0.49 of parents prepare their children themselves for the future dental visit and 39.4%±0.49 rely on the dentists to do it. The analysis shows that parent’s dental anxiety and pre-appointment preparation are not associated with the level of dental fear of their children (p>0.05). Conclusions: In middle childhood the majority of children show no or low level of dental fear. The personal and social factors we studied are not determinant risk factors for 6-12-year-old children to develop dental fear.