Investigation of trait anxiety as a predictor of dental anxiety

Introduction. Feeling of anxiety related to dental
treatment is a fairly common phenomenon. Some
studies have shown that there is an association between
dental anxiety and general fears, neuroticism and
general psychological disorders. Aim of the study. To
examine the relationship between the dental, state and
trait anxiety. Also the socio-demographic variables
were considered in the study. Materials and Methods.
The survey included 138 adult patients (65 women and
73 men) with the mean age (± standard deviation) of
39.3 (±14) years that were admitted to the University
Dental Clinic in Cracow, Poland. The Polish version
of Corah’s Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) and State-Trait
Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were used for the assessment
of dental, state and trait anxiety. For statistical analysis
the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, Pearson correlation
coefficient and stepwise progressive regression were
applied. The cutoff level of significance was taken
as p=0.05. Results. Dental anxiety was significantly
correlated to the state (0.9016) and trait anxiety
(0.8643). Strong relation was found between dental
anxiety and the socio-demographic variables: age
(0.2093), sex (0.2216), education (-0.3814) and
the date of the last dental appointment (0.8134).
Conclusions. Dental anxiety is related to the general
tendency to be apprehensive and to manifest anxiety. It
seems reasonable to manage patient’s dental anxiety
symptoms properly, as this might increase their quality
of life.