Objectives: To evaluate if dental fear interrelates to different types of childhood distress and traumas.
Methods: The study used longitudinal pilot data for the FinnBrain Cohort study. Of 254 families expecting a baby, 203 (80%) agreed to participate and 153 (60%) returned questionnaires at a data collection point (pregnancy weeks H32–34, 151 mothers and 108 fathers). Of these, 118 mothers and 79 fathers had filled out both dental fear (Modified Dental Anxiety Scale, MDAS) and childhood trauma (Trauma and Distress Scale, TADS) questionnaires and were included in the study. For TADS five subscale (emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse) and for MDAS total and two subscale (anticipatory and treatment related) scores were calculated. Relationships between MDAS and TADS scores were evaluated with Spearman correlation coefficients.
Results: Dental fear of mothers did not seem to correlate with any of TADS subscales. Dental fear of fathers correlated with emotional abuse (r=0.252, p<0.05) and emotional neglect (r=0.229, p<0.05) subscales. The correlation was mainly contributed by the anticipatory dental anxiety subscale.
Conclusions: In men emotional traumas seem to have an effect on dental fear and especially its anticipatory component. Because women in this study were pregnant, pregnancy and hormonal changes related to it might have affected the results. There is also a possibility that in pregnant families women and men recall differently their childhood experiences. Possible mechanisms, hormonal and others, behind these differences require further research.