Dental Fear and Associated Factors among Children and Adolescents: A School-Based Study in Lithuania

Eglė Slabšinskienė, Aistė Kavaliauskienė, Miglė Žemaitienė, Ingrida Vasiliauskienė and Apolinaras Zaborskis
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Eglė Slabšinskienė: Department of Oral Health and Paediatric Dentistry, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, LT-44307 Kaunas, Lithuania
Aistė Kavaliauskienė: Department of Orthodontics, Faculty of Odontology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, LT-44307 Kaunas, Lithuania
Miglė Žemaitienė: Department of Oral Health and Paediatric Dentistry, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, LT-44307 Kaunas, Lithuania
Ingrida Vasiliauskienė: Department of Oral Health and Paediatric Dentistry, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, LT-44307 Kaunas, Lithuania
Apolinaras Zaborskis: Department of Preventive Medicine & Health Research Institute, Faculty of Public Health, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, LT-44307 Kaunas, Lithuania

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-18

Abstract: Dental fear is a challenging problem in dentistry and many contributing factors have been identified. Although this problem among children and adolescents has been studied in the literature for a long time, few such studies have been conducted in Lithuania. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of dental fear and examine its association with gender, age and several psychological and social factors among children and adolescents in Lithuania. The cross-sectional survey included a randomly selected sample ( n = 1590) of children aged 11–14 and adolescents aged 15–18. The data were supplemented by interviewing the parents of these subjects ( n = 1399). Dental fear was measured with a single five-score question. The data collection also included questions on oral health, socioeconomic status, oral health-related quality of life and self-esteem. Poisson regression analysis was used to assess the association between perception of dental fear and potential predictor variables. It was found that 32.2% (95% CI: 29.9–34.4%) of children and adolescents reported no fear of dental treatment, 12.5% (10.8–14.2%) of their peers were highly afraid of dental treatment, and other subjects assessed their dental fear gradually. Girls reported greater dental fear scores than boys, but the level of dental fear did not depend on the age. We identified the groups of subjects by gender and age, and a higher level of dental fear was significantly associated with untreated caries experience, a delay in the age of the subject’s first visit to the dentist, low self-esteem, low oral health-related quality of life, low overall life satisfaction and low family affluence. The results also suggested that dental fear could originate from previous toothache, dentists’ actions, high sensitivity in the child and poor psychological readiness for treatment. It was concluded that dental fear among Lithuanian children and adolescents is a common problem that is associated with gender and several dental, psychological and social factors. The findings indicate that school-based health policies, paediatric dentists and parents should be encouraged to focus on the psychosocial factors associated with dental fear because most of them can be prevented.

Keywords: oral health; dental fear; associated factors; children; adolescents; Lithuania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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