Stress amongst primary dental care patients

Abstract

Aims: to determine the prevalence of dental fear amongst primary dental care units (PDCU) patients and to characterize them according to socio-demographic features.

Study design: non-probabilistic sampling on new and consecutive patients demanding exodontia at the Burela, Praza do Ferrol and Viveiro (Lugo) PDCUs from 9 january to 7 march and from 18 june to 21 september 2007. The variables considered were "demographic" (age, gender, address and educational level), "treatment-related" (reason for extraction, root extraction), "attitudes" (accompanied yes/no, spontaneous fear comments yes/no) and "stress" determined using a visual analogue scale (VAS).

Results: A total of 804 patients entered the study. The mean VAS value was 3.54+/-2.63 (range 0 to 10; median 2.95; mode 0). A 96.8% referred some degree of stress, and a 10.1% of the sample scored high values (>7.5 in the scale). These values resulted to be influenced by sex (p=0.000), address (p=0.025) and by the presence of an accompanying person in the room (p=0.008). Logistic regression analysis identifies female gender (OR=3.26; 95%CI: 1.93 , 5.49), urban (OR=2.02 95%CI: 1.04 , 3.91) or rural (OR=2.16; 95%CI: 1.15 , 4.08) address and the absence of an accompanying person in the room (OR=1.68; 95%CI: 1.05 , 2.70) as predictors for a high level of stress.

Conclusion: A 10.1% of the patients experience a high level of stress before tooth extraction. This phenomenon is more common among unaccompanied women from rural or urban areas.