Using Children?s Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale to Identify the Prevalence of Dental Fear and its Relationship with Primary Dental Caries: A Survey on 8-year-old Children
Author(s): Sarah Ahmed Bahammam*
Abstract
Introduction: Dental fear is also a significant determinant of dental caries and is associated with caries? escalated occurrence among adolescents and children. Aims: The study aims to evaluate the fear level of dental procedures among 8-year-old female children and correlate the occurrence of dental caries with their dental fear scores. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional and analytical study design recruited 322 female primary school children (8 years old) from government and private schools in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. To measure students? dental fear level and Prevalence, an Arabic version of CFSS-DS was used as the study?s instrument. Results and Discussion: No statistically significant difference was found between the groups at dmft and DMFT levels. For individual outcomes of DMFT/dmft, the mean total score with untreated filled primary teeth was significantly higher than other groups. Conclusion: The study has concluded that the Prevalence of dental fear among students was low. Both preventive dental visits and caries risk assessment are important to reduce dental problems. The study has contacted only female students, which was the main limitation.