Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde

Context Anxiety is defined as an emotion produced by a set of feelings and physical changes. Many patients are afraid of some procedures involved in dental therapy.

Aim:

The objective of this study was to verify the anxiety of patients regarding the visits to dental clinics of a higher education institution, as well as to observe the moment of greatest anxiety. Settings and

Design:

It is a cross-sectional observational study including 94 patients from the dental clinics of an educational institution in a city of southern Brazil. Materials and

Methods:

The Corah Dental Anxiety Scale, composed of four questions, was used to evaluate the dental anxiety levels of all patients. The sample universe included registered patients under treatment in the clinics of the studied institution, from August to November of 2016. We included only healthy patients over 18-year old who were subjected to surgical and nonsurgical procedures. Statistical

Analysis:

The data were analyzed through descriptive statistic to verify the frequency distribution of all variables. Pearson's Chi-square test, at 5% significance level and 95% confidence interval, was used to evaluate the association between the dependent variable (dental treatment anxiety) and the independent variables (demographics), aided by the SPSS software 20.0.

Results:

It was found that most of the participants were not anxious (69.1%) and the moment of greatest anxiety reported was before local anesthesia. In addition, statistics showed no correlation among gender, age group, and type of procedure performed. It was possible to conclude that the level of anxiety of the patients regarding the dental care performed in the clinics of the studied institution was low for both surgical and nonsurgical procedures.

Conclusion:

This survey revealed that the moment of greatest anxiety for the patients was before the anesthetic procedure, and gender, age, and type of procedure did not influence the level of anxiety felt by the patient.