International Journal of Collaborative Research on Internal Medicine & Public Health

Survey of self reported dental fear among pregnant women in Qazvin, Iran

Background: Pregnancy is a predictable process which may make some changes in different parts of body such as oral and dental. The dentists feel influenced in taking care of pregnancy patients, showing fear, anxiety, and avoidance in the dental situation.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to define and investigate current occurrence and level of dental anxiety and fear in a population of pregnant women in Qazvin, Iran. Methods &Materials: This cross-sectional study group comprise of seven hundred and sixty individuals with age ranged from 17-41 years. The prenatal patients in different stages of pregnancy were randomly selected from the three different family planning clinics. The questions were formulated to evaluate information without the need for dental examination. The Kleinknecht's Dental Fear Survey Questionnaire were used and distributed among the participants in this research.

Results: According to the results, the overall occurrence of dental fear was 93.9% of which 66.7% of the subjects reported low fear levels, 27.2% were moderately fearful while no one was highly fearful. Only 6.1% of the subject reported no fear. The drill and anesthetic needle were recognized as the most fear frustrating objects.

Conclusion: Dental fear is a common problem among prenatal mothers which results in their poor dental attendance.

Author(s): Jalaleddin Hamissi , Hesameddin Hamissi , Salma Tabatabaei

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