Anxiety Assessment in Children and Adolescents Caused by Dental Treatment

Abstract

Children exaggerated reactions to the felt fear can make it difficult and can even make dental treatment impossible under normal conditions. Dental fear, dental anxiety and dental phobia are three different ways of perceiving dental treatment, respectively three different ways of reacting to dental interventions. This study is a retrospective study carried out between April - May 2019 in the Paedodontics Department of the Faculty of Dental Medicine, "Victor Babeș" University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timișoara, and includes 1816 adolescent patients. The investigation method used was the questionnaire-based survey, applied to a representative sample of the adolescent population (aged 14-18) of Timișoara. Results show different variations in dental fear and dental anxiety according to sex, age groups, personal characteristics and other psychological and social factors. It is important to follow therapeutic guidelines that allow us from the beginning to assess the patient's anxiety about dental treatment to create a comfortable environment for the patient so it will increase the acceptability of dental procedures and addressability to treatment.