2025 Volume 63 Issue 1 Pages 20-27
Clarifying the causes of fear of dental treatment is helpful in building a good relationship with affected children and in considering how the initial examination should be conducted in pediatric dental treatment. In this study, we investigated over a 15-year period the relationship between the actual experience of dental treatment in childhood and the current fear of dental treatment using the results of a questionnaire survey administered to first-year dental students immediately after their enrollment in dental school as part of their educational duties.
Summary statistics of the collected data were calculated. The results of the questionnaire were then summarized by grouping the respondents into those who answered “afraid” and those who answered “not afraid” regarding “current fear of dental treatment”. Logistic regression analysis was conducted using “current fear of dental treatment” as the objective variable, and odds ratios, 95％ CI values, and p-values were calculated for variables that could be converged among the questionnaire items. The odds ratio, 95％ CI value, and p-value were calculated for each year that the questionnaire was administered.
The results showed that the presence or absence of fear at the first dental treatment and the presence or absence of pain at the first dental treatment were significantly related to the presence or absence of current fear of dental treatment. In addition, more respondents in the group with fear of dental treatment answered that cutting noise was unpleasant than those in the group without fear of dental treatment. The percentage of students who were fearful of dental treatment showed a decreasing trend, although the difference was not significant.
