Prevalence of Dental Fear among 6-15 Years Old School Children

Dahal, Sirjana; Shrestha, Ashish; Bhagat, Tarakant

Publication:
Prevalence of Dental Fear among 6-15 Years Old School Children

creativeworkseries.issn	JNMA Print ISSN: 0028-2715; Online ISSN: 1815-672X
dc.contributor.author	Dahal, Sirjana
dc.contributor.author	Shrestha, Ashish
dc.contributor.author	Bhagat, Tarakant
dc.date.accessioned	2026-08-19T05:39:05Z
dc.date.available	2026-08-19T05:39:05Z
dc.date.issued	2020
dc.description	Sirjana Dahal Department of Community and Public Health Dentistry, Kathmandu Medical College Teaching Hospital, Duwakot, Bhaktapur, Nepal Ashish Shrestha Department of Public Health Dentistry, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal Tarakant Bhagat Department of Public Health Dentistry, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal
dc.description.abstract	Abstract Introduction: Odontophobia or dental fear is a â€œunique phobia with special psychosomatic components that impact on the dental health of the odontophobia persons". It is well documented that dental fear has a significant impact on dental care utilization behaviors. The objective of this study was to find out the level of dental fear among school children studying in government schools of Dharan, Nepal. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from March to August 2017 among 215 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 stage cluster sampling method. The Childrenâ€™s Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale was used to measure dental fear among the study group. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel Sheet 2007 and analyzed in Statistical 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 high fear 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 of dental treatment. So, school health programs should be planned to make the children familiar to dentistry and proper treatment modalities should be provided to make the child comfortable to seek dental care. Keywords: children;dental fear; gender differences; Nepal.
dc.identifier	https://doi.org/10.31729/jnma.4791
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14572/7355
dc.language.iso	en_US
dc.publisher	Nepal Medical Association
dc.subject	children
dc.subject	dental fear
dc.subject	gender differences
dc.subject	Nepal
dc.title	Prevalence of Dental Fear among 6-15 Years Old School Children
dc.type	Article
dspace.entity.type	Publication
local.article.type	Original Article
oaire.citation.endPage	38
oaire.citation.startPage	33
relation.isJournalIssueOfPublication	29d9f01b-545c-4174-9197-6fb1f8ea7111
relation.isJournalIssueOfPublication.latestForDiscovery	29d9f01b-545c-4174-9197-6fb1f8ea7111
relation.isJournalOfPublication	e6e146a0-0ece-4aba-aa0a-6ccfbd10a12a