Prevalence of Dental Fear among 6-15 Years Old School Children

Abstract

Introduction: Odontophobia or dental fear is a “unique phobia with special psychosomatic
components that impact on the dental health of the odontophobia persons". It is well documented
that dental fear has a significant impact on dental care utilization behaviors. The objective of this
study was to find out the level of dental fear among school children studying in government schools
of Dharan, Nepal.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from March to August 2017 among
215 school going children of Dharan of age group 6 to 15 years. Ethical approval was obtained.
Children studying in six different government schools of Dharan were selected using two stage
cluster sampling method. The Children’s Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale was used to measure
dental fear among the study group. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel Sheet 2007 and analyzed in
Statistical Package of Social Sciences 11.5.

Results: This study showed that among the total study population, 96 (44.7%) had high fear, 62
(28.8%) had moderate fear and 57 (26.5%) had low dental fear. Among males, 29 (34.5%) had high
fear whereas more than half of the female respondents had high fear.

Conclusions: The present study showed that most of the school going children had high fear of
dental treatment. So, school health programs should be planned to make the children familiar to
dentistry and proper treatment modalities should be provided to make the child comfortable to seek
dental care.