Abstract
A new dental anxiety questionnaire was designed with the purpose of the screening of fearful children in dentistry. There ware two kinds of questionnaire, one for parents and the other for children. The questionnaires were answered by the parents. For the evaluation of the questionnaire, the following studies were carried out; first, concerning the reliability and validity of the questionnaire and secondly the relationship between the degree of dental anxiety and the dental caries experience, and thirdly the relationship between the degree of dental anxiety and the behavior during dental treatment. The following results were obtained:
1. High reliability and adequate validity were found, according to Cronbach's α coefficient and multivariate analysis.
2. It is possible that a child's anxiety was the consequence of the mother's anxiety and their own dental experience and that there was a relationship between the child's anxiety and the clinical aspect of the oral cavity.
3. Heart rate increased with the degree of dental anxiety. Skin temperature also increased, especially in the high fear group, and it was also possible to see the signs of anxiety, especially in hands and foot, in the high fear group.
The results suggested that this new questionnaire was effective for measuring the degree of dental anxiety and for screening of fearful children in dentistry.
