PREVALENCE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF DENTAL ANXIETY IN DANISH ADULTS

Prevalence, characteristics and consequences of dental anxiety in a ra ndomly selected sample of 645 Danish adults were explored in telephone interviews. Participation rate was 88%. Demographics, fear of specifi c procedures, negative dentist contacts, general fear tendency, treatm ent utilization and perceived oral conditions were explored by level o f dental anxiety using a modified Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS). A Seattl e fear survey item and a summary item from the Dental Fear Survey (DFS ) were also included for fear description comparisons. Correlation bet ween these indices (DAS-DFS: r(s) = 0.72; DAS-Seattle item: r(s) = 0.6 8) aided semantic validation of DAS anxiety intensity levels. Extreme dental anxiety (DAS greater-than-or-equal-to 15) was found in 4.2% of the sample and 6% reported moderate anxiety (DAS scores 14-12). Bivari ate (B) and logistic regression (L) odds ratios (OR) showed that high dental anxiety was associated with gender, education and income, but n ot with age. Extreme dental anxiety for dentate subjects was character ized by fear of drilling (OR(L) = 38.7), negative dentist contacts (OR (L) = 9.3), general fear tendency (OR(L) = 3.4), avoidance of treatmen t (OR(L) = 16.8) and increased oral symptoms (OR(B) = 4.4). Moderate d ental anxiety was also related to drilling (OR(L) = 22.3), but with le ss avoidance due to anxiety (OR(L) = 6.8) compared with low fear subje cts.