Dental anxiety among the patients visiting the dental department of Gayatri Medical College, Visakhapatnam

Dental treatment remains one of the most anxious visits despite awareness between dentists and patients in building trusting relationships. The fear of Dental treatment determines the frequency of treatment availed with long term implications in oral health maintenance. Any patient aged 15 years and above, were considered for the study. A structured custom-made questionnaire was designed to assess the anxiety levels of dental patients. The level of patients’ anxiety was assessed talking into account various factors that could influence their mental state. This included their age, gender, educational qualification number/frequency of their dental visits, reason for their visit, past dental experiences and nature of dental procedure planned. Aims: The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of Dental Anxiety based on age and Gender distribution. Method: A Cross-sectional study was conducted among the patients visiting the dental department of Gayatri Vidya Parishad Institute of Health Care and Medical Technology. The sample size was 160 and the age group ranges from 15 to 65 years. Summary: Dental anxiety has an impact on behavior, health, Physiology, cognition and social factors. This in turn is manifested as fear, avoidance behavior, aggression, tension and emotional instability affecting sleep, work and relationships.