ASSESSMENT OF DENTAL ANXIETY AMONG A GROUP OF EGYPTIAN DENTAL STUDENTS

Abstract

Abstract Background: Dental anxiety is a psychological feeling; that can prevent partially or completely a person from receiving dental treatment. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of dental anxiety prevalent among a group of Egyptian dental students and to compare the anxiety levels reported from female and male dental students .Subjects and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed among the 1st,2nd(pre-clinical years ),3rd and 4th(clinical years ) dental students from Faculty of dentistry, October 6 University in Egypt. Corah’s dental scale of anxiety (DAS) questionnaires in English language, was distributed among the entire dental students present at the day planned for the study (188 students, females: 114, males: 74). DAS had four questions assessing the level of anxiousness with a probable maximum achievable score of 20. For each question five options were available in which scoring was accomplished as A = 1; B = 2; C = 3; D =4 and E= 5. Results:On Comparing DAS scores between males and females students in1st , 2nd as well as 3rdyear students; males showed statistically significant lower median DAS scores than females with no significant difference between both gender in the 4thyear. As regards all years students, males showed statistically significantly lower median DAS scores than females(P-value <0.001).Conclusion: Female dental students showed more anxiety levels as compared to male dental students for both pre- clinical and clinical years