Investigating Fear of Obtaining Dental Services and Related Causes in Medical Students of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in 2020

Fear of dentistry causes problems for the patient and the dentist and can reduce the pain threshold, use fewer services or avoid treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate fear of obtaining dental services and related causes in medical students of Shahid SadoughiUniversity of Medical Sciences inYazd City in 2020.

191 students participated in this descriptive-analytical study. The dental fear survey (DFS) and a questionnaire to assess the causes of dental fear were used. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software, ANOVA and T-tests.

The results showed that dental students had the lowest level of fear and nursing students had the highest level of fear. Fear of dentistry was higher in women than men and the average fear score decreased among the students in higher semesters (fifth semester students) (P<0/05). Fear of dentistry was related to some factors such as economic status, oral health, history of anxiety disorders and the time since the last visit (P = 0.001).  The most common factors influencing this fear were corona fear, dental work with pain, needle fear, price fear, and turbine fear.  

Fear of obtaining dental services was influenced by major, gender, semester, time since the last visit to the dentist, history of anxiety disorders, economic status and oral hygiene among medical students, but marital status had no effect on the level of fear.