Influence of Parental Dental Anxiety on Children’s Oral Health Status - a Cross Sectional Survey

Objective: Parental dental fear and anxiety (DFA) significantly influence adolescents’ access to the dental care and their ability to maintain oral health. The study aimed to evaluate how dental anxiety of parents affects the oral health status of their children using the Index of Dental Anxiety and Fear “(IDAF)-4C+” scale.Material and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 111 parent-child pairs in the out patient department (OPD) of the Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Kalinga Institute of Dental Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha (India). Children aged 6 -14 years and one of their parents were selected using convenient sampling for the study. An investigation was done to assess the impact of the dental anxiety of the parents on the oral health status of their children. A pre-tested questionnaire, “IDAF-4C+” was used to measure the dental anxiety and fear of the parents. Clinical examinations of the children were done using the World Health Organization (WHO) dentition status (2013). The STATA-14 was used for statistical analysis. Results: 44% of the parents reported no or little, or low dental fear. Of the rest, 8% reported moderate dental fear and 4% reported high dental fear. Positive correlations were found between the dental fear, phobia symptom, and dental experience of the parents and the oral health status of their children (r1=0.1254, r2=0.1120, r3=0.1829) for each of the 3 modules of the IDAF-4C+ (IDAF-4C, IDAF- P, IDAF-S) i.e. core, phobia and stimulus model respectively.Conclusion: The dental anxiety of a parent affects the oral health of their children. The IDAF-4C+ scale provides a comprehensive insight into the origins of dental anxiety and its impact on emotions, cognitive processes, and behaviour.