Dental anxiety among patients prior to different dental treatments

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate dental anxiety among patie nts anticipating various dental treatments. One hundred and eighty patients who were scheduled for specific dental treatments at the School of Dental Medicine, the Hebrew University - Hadassah, Jerusalem, Israel participated in the study. Patients were anticipating one of the following dental proced ures: scaling, filling, root canal therapy, preparation for crown, periodon tal surgery or extraction. For each of the six dental treatments, 30 patien ts were selected at random. Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) questionnaires were completed by the patients while waiting for their treatments. The results i ndicated that extraction caused the highest score, followed by scaling (tho ugh not significantly). Patients in the 35 to 49 year age group showed the highest total DAS scores. Women demonstrated higher total DAS scores than m en. The relative influence of gender, type of treatment and age on the anxi ety scores is demonstrated by using logistic regression, which revealed gen der to have the strongest impact on the DAS scores, followed by the type of treatment and age.