Self-Assessment of Dental Anxiety in Patients Visiting Comprehensive Rural Health Service Project

Dental anxiety is a common problem both for dental practitioners and the people and afflicts a significant proportion of people of all ages from different social classes and often results in poor oral health by complete avoidance of dental treatment, irregular dental attendance or poor co-operation. Dental anxiety is based on several factors like family and social environment, general fearfulness, pain and traumatic, unpleasant experiences. Patient perceptions of behaviours and attitudes of dentists can affect dental anxiety and could influence his or her decision to access dental care [1]. It is therefore becomes imperative to assess the dental anxiety quantitatively and qualitatively and its associated factors.