Dental fear and anxiety among patients seeking urgent dental care

Abstract

Background: Dental fear and anxiety are key reasons why people delay seeking care. There is little understanding about dental fear and anxiety levels among adults seeking dental care in Hong Kong. Aim: To describe the level of dental fear and anxiety among patients seeking urgent dental care at our hospital’s Reception & Primary Care (RPC) clinic; to determine the correlation between different measures of dental fear and anxiety in the local context; and to identify variations in dental fear and anxiety among those seeking urgent dental care in relation to socio-demographic factors and dental attendance patterns. Methods: A questionnaire-assisted survey was conducted among patients seeking dental care during our community health block teaching week. Assessment of dental fear and anxiety was assessed through a range of different instruments. Levels of dental fear and anxiety were determined through descriptive statistics. Correlation between assessments of dental fear and anxiety were determined. Variations in dental fear and anxiety levels were determined using Student’s t-test for independent samples. Results: Levels of dental fear and anxiety varied among the patients. In general, levels of dental fear and anxiety could be interpreted as moderate to low (based on mean value scores). In general, there was moderate to strong correlation between the different assessment instruments of dental fear and anxiety (r≥0.50). Socio-demographic variations in dental fear and anxiety existed with respect to age group (p<0.05) and level of educational attainment (p<0.05). Dental attendance patterns were significantly associated with levels of dental fear and anxiety. New patients had significantly higher levels of dental anxiety (p<0.01). Pain-motivated dental attendees had higher levels of anxiety (p<0.01). Those who delayed seeking dental care consistently had higher levels of dental fear and anxiety (p<0.001). Conclusion: Our community health project suggests that dental fear and anxiety is relatively common among adults seeking urgent dental care at our hospital. Measures of dental fear and anxiety are moderately to strongly correlated. Variations in dental fear and anxiety levels are associated with socio-demographic factors and dental attendance patterns. The findings of our community health project have implications in screening for and managing dental fear and anxiety at our hospital’s urgent dental care clinic.