Socio-demographic determinants of dental anxiety and fear among college students

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships of dental anxiety and fear with socio-demographic and clinical features, as well as physical exercise frequency.
METHODS: A total of 230 undergraduate students from five different majors including dentistry, medicine, veterinary medicine, physical education vocational high school, and faculty of education participated in the study. The mean age of participants was 23.27 (SS=2.09). A socio-demographic questionnaire, the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) and the Dental Fear Scale (DFS) were used in the study. In order to evaluate the correlates of dental fear and anxiety, two multiple regression analyses were performed where the scores of Dental Fear Scale and Dental Anxiety Scale were dependent variables.
RESULTS: Multiple regression analyses showed that both dental fear and dental anxiety were significantly associated with being of younger age, being female, having a prior history of a psychiatric disorder, and less likely to exercise physically. Considering differences across five majors, medicine and dentistry students were less likely to report dental fear and anxiety relative to other majors.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: We concluded that females, individuals with a younger age, individuals with a psychiatric history, an those less likely to exercise physically were at greater risk of dental anxiety and fear.