Dental Anxiety and its Associated Factors Among Patients Visiting Outpatient Department of Different Tertiary Care Dental Hospitals of Karachi

Authors

  • Syeda Zeenat Raza Rizvi
  • Syed Muhammad Zulfiqar Hyder Naqvi
  • Syed Imtiaz Ahmed Jafry
  • Syed Mohsin Abbas Abidi

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58397/ashkmdc.v24i3.10

Keywords:

Dental Anxiety, outpatients, tertiary healthcare, baqai institute of health sciences.

Abstract

Objective: To assess dental anxiety and its  associated  factors  among  patients  visiting  OPD  of  differ- ent tertiary care dental hospitals of Karachi.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2018 to November 2018 in two public and     two private dental colleges of Karachi namely Karachi Medical  and  Dental  College,  Dr.  Ishrat-ul-Ibal  Khan  Institute  of  Oral  Health  Sciences,  Hamdard  Dental  College  and  Baqai  Dental  College.  Being aged ³ 18 years of either gender were the inclusion criteria whereas refusal for a written informed consent was the exclusion criterion.After checking eligibility and taking written informed consent, a total of 247 participants were interviewed by the principal investigator using a questionnaire which  included  Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale and Dental Concerns Assessment. Data were entered and  analyzed  on SPSS version 20. Inferential analysis was performed using  chi-square  test  and  Mann-Whitney  U  test after checking normality. The significance level was kept at 0.05.

Results: The study findings revealed that 2.4%  of  the  patients  interviewed  were  severely  anxious,  8.1% were highly anxious, 37.2% were moderately anxious while 54.3% were not  at  all  anxious.  Moreover, patients with younger age and monthly household  income  between  16000  and  75000  ru- pees had significantly higher mean dental anxiety scores.

Conclusion: The study findings revealed that up to 45.7% patients were anxious up to some degree. There is a need for better understanding of factors potentially increasing anxiety in dental patients in order to avoid them as negative experiences in past are known to trigger dental anxiety in future.

Author Biographies

Syeda Zeenat Raza Rizvi

Department of Community Medicine, Baqai Medical University

Syed Muhammad Zulfiqar Hyder Naqvi

Department of Community Medicine, Baqai Medical University

Syed Imtiaz Ahmed Jafry

Department of Community Medicine, Baqai Medical University

Syed Mohsin Abbas Abidi

Department of Community Medicine, Baqai Medical University

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Published

2019-10-28