Anxiety about dental treatment – a gender issue

Abstract

This study compared prevalence and risk factors of dental anxiety between men and women. The sample consisted of 244 participants (n = 122 men) aged 18 years or older who sought dental care at a public Dental Education Institution from March 2018 to November 2019. The Modified Dental Anxiety Scale was used to determine presence of dental anxiety. The following risk factors were recorded: age, years of schooling, preoperative pain, and type of dental treatment. Bivariate analysis was used to assess the difference in dental anxiety between the sexes. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the association between dental anxiety and gender, regardless of the influence of other variables. Total prevalence of dental anxiety was 18% (n = 44), 22.9% (28/122) in women and 13.1% (16/122) in men (p = 0.04). Gender (odds ratio: 1.83, 95% confidence interval: 0.92–3.62) and preoperative pain (odds ratio: 2.095, 95% confidence interval: 0.97–4.49) were associated with dental anxiety. We concluded that women had a higher prevalence of dental anxiety. Preoperative pain was associated with dental anxiety regardless of gender.