Aim: To estimate the prevalence and associations of dental anxiety and to find out the methods to relieve anxiety in a sample of the Saudi Arabian population.
Material & Methods: Four hundred subjects from Saudi Arabia of different age groups were evaluated by a questionnaire.
Results: A majority of the subjects (80%) were accompanied by a friend or relative to the dental clinic. 70.5% of the subjects were anxious or afraid to go to a dental clinic that 6.7% of the subjects said that they were more relaxed after spending some time in the clinic. The factors which relaxed them were presence of accompanying person and communication with the dentist whereas communication with other patients in the waiting area and the ambience of the clinic were not major factors. 32% of the subjects found that the treatment procedure during their first appointment was painful. Most of the patients found visit to a dental clinic was better than that to a general hospital. Most of the subjects (89.3%) responded that their overall experience about their first dental visit was good or fair and only 10.7% said that it was poor. 61.3% of the subjects were willing to go back to the same dentist.
Conclusion:
The prevalence of dental anxiety was high (70.5%). The apprehension seen towards dental treatment is based on misconceptions and fear of the unknown. My suggestion is to conduct awareness camps in localities and organize school trips to allay the fear of unknown.
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