Evaluation of Dental Anxiety Levels of Students from Different Departments

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate and compare the anxiety levels among dentistry students and students from other departments and to assess the effects of classes at pre-clinic labs or dentistry clinics on the dental fear of dentistry students. Materials and Methods: A total of 993 students, including 744 (75%) women and 249 (25%) men, were asked to answer the Modified Dental Anxiety scale (MDAS) and Dental Fear scale. Four groups were created according to the departments: Dentistry (group 1), medicine (group 2), health-related (group 3) and others (group 4). The participants scored their anxiety levels from 1 (no anxiety) to 5 (high anxiety). Statistical analysis was performed and values of p<0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: The dentistry students scored lower than the other three groups in the MDAS (p<0.001). For the education process of dentistry, no significant difference was observed in other questions regarding pre-clinic dentistry and dentistry clinic periods (p>0.05). Conclusion: Results of this study showed that the dental anxiety levels of dentistry students were lower than those of students from other departments and that preclinic or dentistry clinic classes did not affect dental anxiety.