Dental anxiety: survey in students of elementary school in Pouso Redondo city - SC

Abstract

The aim of this exploratory study was to determine the percentage of students in a public school that experience anxiety about dental treatment, as well as to characterize those individuals with a high level of anxiety. The instrument used for data collection was consisted of an adaptation of the Dental Anxiety Scale modified (DASm) which was applied to 697 students of the fundamental school. The results indicated that 83% of the individuals who were investigated presented some signal of anxiety, with the girls showing more anxiety than the boys. The majority of the interviewed ones asserted that they have seen the dentist in the last two years, having as main causes to anxiety, restorative treatments. After analyzing the data, it can be concluded that there are high percentages of anxiety to dental treatment in the studied group. Key words: Dental anxiety. Child behavior. Dentist-patient relations.