Prevalence of Dental Fear among 6-15 Years Old School Children
Introduction: Odontophobia or dental fear is a “unique phobia with special psychosomaticcomponents that impact on the dental health of the odontophobia persons". It is well documentedthat dental fear has a significant impact on dental care utilization behaviors. The objective of thisstudy was to find out the level of dental fear among school children studying in government schoolsof Dharan, Nepal. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from March to August 2017 among215 school going children of Dharan of age group 6 to 15 years. Ethical approval was obtained.Children studying in six different government schools of Dharan were selected using two stagecluster sampling method. The Children’s Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale was used to measuredental fear among the study group. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel Sheet 2007 and analyzed inStatistical Package of Social Sciences 11.5. Results: This study showed that among the total study population, 96 (44.7%) had high fear, 62(28.8%) had moderate fear and 57 (26.5%) had low dental fear. Among males, 29 (34.5%) had highfear whereas more than half of the female respondents had high fear. Conclusions: The present study showed that most of the school going children had high fear ofdental treatment. So, school health programs should be planned to make the children familiar todentistry and proper treatment modalities should be provided to make the child comfortable to seekdental care.