Children's anxiety and its correlation with pain in dental clinics

الملخص

Background: Many measurement techniques have been used to examine the psychology of children during dental procedures, including behavioral ratings, psychometric scales, self-reports, and projective techniques. So this study was conducted to assess dental anxiety and pain of children during dental procedures.

One hundred children of 6 to 12 years old (males and females) were contributed in this study. They were examined in the Pediatric Dental Clinics, Faculty of Dentistry, Mansoura University. Subjects were assigned into two equal groups (each n=50) according to age; group (A): children (6-<9) years old, and group (B): children (9-12) years old. Each group was subdivided into two equal subgroups (each n=25) according to gender. Dental procedure “local anesthesia and tooth restoration” was carried out for each child, and anxiety was measured during dental procedure by using Venham 6 point index. After tooth restoration was finished each child was asked to answer a simple direct questionnaire, then was given a blank sheet of paper and a set of color pencils and instructed “please draw a picture of a person in a dental clinic, I will take your picture when you finished”. Children drawings were scored using Child drawing: Hospital (CD:H) scale which its rating consisted of three parts; part A of 14 items , part B of 8 items of high anxiety not necessary to be present in all drawings and part C which depended on the overall response by the scorer to children’s drawings . Pain assessed by using Wong-Baker’s faces pain scale (WBFPS) and visual analogue scale (VAS).

Results: With respect to gender there was no significant difference between males and females in assessment of anxiety and pain in all scales except, Questionnaire in group A and Venham 6 point index in group B, for anxiety, and Wong-Baker’s faces scales in group B for pain, which showed significant differences. According to age there was no significant differences between the two age groups in males and females for anxiety and pain scales. Through results of questionnaire dental anxiety did not always present a psychologically traumatic experience.