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Prevalence of Dental Anxiety and Fear among Medical Students at University of Thamar

Received: 4 October 2014     Accepted: 9 October 2014     Published: 22 January 2015
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Abstract

Background/purpose: Fear from dental treatment is widespread distressing problem for the dentist. Anxiety may have an impact to the dentist-patient relationship and it may cause to misdiagnosis. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the levels of dental anxiety and fear among medical students at University of Thamar.Materials and methods: Dental anxiety scale (DAS) and Dental Fear Survey (DFS) were completed by one hundred undergraduate medical students. Cross-tabulations were applied to determine the levels of DAS and DFS. Pearson’s correlation was used to analyse the association among the dental anxiety measurements. Pearson’s correlation also was used to investigate the association between DAS and DFS tests. Results: The prevalence of moderate dental anxiety in this sample was 51%, while both 12% of the sample was characterized with high and severe dental anxiety. There were association for question #1 to question #3 (0.368, p = 0.000) and question #4 (0.133, p = 0.191). Furthermore, the question #2 showed association with question #3 (0.362, p = 0.000) and question #4 (0.250, p = 0.013). However, the lowest relationship (0.088, p = 0.387) was noticed between question #3 and question #4. Respondents who reported moderate dental fear were 79%, whereas 12% of the sample was characterized with high dental fear. Pearson’s correlation between DAS and DFS tests was 0.142 with p-value = 0.158.Conclusions: The overall dental anxiety and fear from dental treatment was still high. Therefore, more prevention protocols and dental health educational programs are recommended for employing in Yemeni universities.

Published in American Journal of Health Research (Volume 3, Issue 1-2)

This article belongs to the Special Issue Oral Health Status in Yemen

DOI 10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2015030102.12
Page(s) 5-9
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Dental Anxiety, Dental Fear, Dental Education, Dental Health, Yemen

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Ahmed A. Madfa, Abdullah G. Amran, Fadhel A. Al-Sanabani, Mohammed N. Alhajj, Nasr H. Al-Qudaimi, et al. (2015). Prevalence of Dental Anxiety and Fear among Medical Students at University of Thamar. American Journal of Health Research, 3(1-2), 5-9. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2015030102.12

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    ACS Style

    Ahmed A. Madfa; Abdullah G. Amran; Fadhel A. Al-Sanabani; Mohammed N. Alhajj; Nasr H. Al-Qudaimi, et al. Prevalence of Dental Anxiety and Fear among Medical Students at University of Thamar. Am. J. Health Res. 2015, 3(1-2), 5-9. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2015030102.12

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    AMA Style

    Ahmed A. Madfa, Abdullah G. Amran, Fadhel A. Al-Sanabani, Mohammed N. Alhajj, Nasr H. Al-Qudaimi, et al. Prevalence of Dental Anxiety and Fear among Medical Students at University of Thamar. Am J Health Res. 2015;3(1-2):5-9. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2015030102.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2015030102.12,
      author = {Ahmed A. Madfa and Abdullah G. Amran and Fadhel A. Al-Sanabani and Mohammed N. Alhajj and Nasr H. Al-Qudaimi and Nayl A. AL-Malahy and Hamzah A. Al-washali and Xiao-Guang Yue},
      title = {Prevalence of Dental Anxiety and Fear among Medical Students at University of Thamar},
      journal = {American Journal of Health Research},
      volume = {3},
      number = {1-2},
      pages = {5-9},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2015030102.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2015030102.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajhr.s.2015030102.12},
      abstract = {Background/purpose: Fear from dental treatment is widespread distressing problem for the dentist. Anxiety may have an impact to the dentist-patient relationship and it may cause to misdiagnosis. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the levels of dental anxiety and fear among medical students at University of Thamar.Materials and methods: Dental anxiety scale (DAS) and Dental Fear Survey (DFS) were completed by one hundred undergraduate medical students. Cross-tabulations were applied to determine the levels of DAS and DFS. Pearson’s correlation was used to analyse the association among the dental anxiety measurements. Pearson’s correlation also was used to investigate the association between DAS and DFS tests. Results: The prevalence of moderate dental anxiety in this sample was 51%, while both 12% of the sample was characterized with high and severe dental anxiety. There were association for question #1 to question #3 (0.368, p = 0.000) and question #4 (0.133, p = 0.191). Furthermore, the question #2 showed association with question #3 (0.362, p = 0.000) and question #4 (0.250, p = 0.013). However, the lowest relationship (0.088, p = 0.387) was noticed between question #3 and question #4. Respondents who reported moderate dental fear were 79%, whereas 12% of the sample was characterized with high dental fear. Pearson’s correlation between DAS and DFS tests was 0.142 with p-value = 0.158.Conclusions: The overall dental anxiety and fear from dental treatment was still high. Therefore, more prevention protocols and dental health educational programs are recommended for employing in Yemeni universities.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Prevalence of Dental Anxiety and Fear among Medical Students at University of Thamar
    AU  - Ahmed A. Madfa
    AU  - Abdullah G. Amran
    AU  - Fadhel A. Al-Sanabani
    AU  - Mohammed N. Alhajj
    AU  - Nasr H. Al-Qudaimi
    AU  - Nayl A. AL-Malahy
    AU  - Hamzah A. Al-washali
    AU  - Xiao-Guang Yue
    Y1  - 2015/01/22
    PY  - 2015
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2015030102.12
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2015030102.12
    T2  - American Journal of Health Research
    JF  - American Journal of Health Research
    JO  - American Journal of Health Research
    SP  - 5
    EP  - 9
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-8796
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2015030102.12
    AB  - Background/purpose: Fear from dental treatment is widespread distressing problem for the dentist. Anxiety may have an impact to the dentist-patient relationship and it may cause to misdiagnosis. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the levels of dental anxiety and fear among medical students at University of Thamar.Materials and methods: Dental anxiety scale (DAS) and Dental Fear Survey (DFS) were completed by one hundred undergraduate medical students. Cross-tabulations were applied to determine the levels of DAS and DFS. Pearson’s correlation was used to analyse the association among the dental anxiety measurements. Pearson’s correlation also was used to investigate the association between DAS and DFS tests. Results: The prevalence of moderate dental anxiety in this sample was 51%, while both 12% of the sample was characterized with high and severe dental anxiety. There were association for question #1 to question #3 (0.368, p = 0.000) and question #4 (0.133, p = 0.191). Furthermore, the question #2 showed association with question #3 (0.362, p = 0.000) and question #4 (0.250, p = 0.013). However, the lowest relationship (0.088, p = 0.387) was noticed between question #3 and question #4. Respondents who reported moderate dental fear were 79%, whereas 12% of the sample was characterized with high dental fear. Pearson’s correlation between DAS and DFS tests was 0.142 with p-value = 0.158.Conclusions: The overall dental anxiety and fear from dental treatment was still high. Therefore, more prevention protocols and dental health educational programs are recommended for employing in Yemeni universities.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 1-2
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Conservative Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Thamar, Dhamar, Yemen

  • Department of Periodontology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Thamar, Dhamar, Yemen

  • Department of Conservative Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Thamar, Dhamar, Yemen

  • Department of Prosthetic Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Thamar, Dhamar, Yemen

  • Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Preventive Dentistry and Orthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Thamar, Dhamar, Yemen

  • Department of Conservative Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Thamar, Dhamar, Yemen

  • Faculty of Demonstrative Sciences, University of Thamar, Dhamar, Yemen

  • Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China

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