DE5_OA_Ankur edit

Background: AIM: Dental anxiety is one of the major factors influencing an individual’s attitude and behavior towards dental health. Medical students bear the responsibility of creating dental health awareness in rural parts of India where availability of dentists is still a problem. This study assessed the prevalence of dental anxiety among medical undergraduate students and its impact on their dental health behavior. Methods: Total 196 students were included in this study out of which 81 were males ad 115 were females. All the participants answered 3 multiple-choice questions regarding their dental health behavior and filled up Modified dental anxiety scale (MDAS) questionnaire. Collected data were subjected to statistical analysis and results were expressed as absolute numbers and percentages for males and females. Gender-wise comparison to their responses was also made using chi-square test. Results: On analyzing the data, it was observes that 85.7% subjects who had “poor” previous dental experience were dentally anxious. 81.8% subjects with MDAS score between 11 and 25 tended to postpone dental treatment. Irrespective of gender, anticipation to have local anaesthetic injection was related to the highest level of dental anxiety. 13% of females and 9.9% of male participants were found to be dentally phobic (MDA score ≥ 19). Mean MDA score was higher in female students (12.17 ± 4.24) as compared to their male counterparts (11.36 ± 3.51) but this difference was statistically not significant (p>0.05). Conclusion: From the findings of this study, it can be concluded that dental anxiety is a significant problem among the Indian medical undergraduate students. As a result of this, these students tend to avoid regular visit to dentist which in turn might affect their dental health.