Method: All 11–12-year-old children in Pori, Finland (n=1691) and one of their parents were invited to participate this 3.5-year follow-up survey in 2001. Dental fear was measured with single-item question using 5 response categories. Children and parents answered the questionnaire independently of each other. In 2001, the questionnaire was returned by 1649 children and 1523 parents. In 2005, when the children were 15–16-years-old, the corresponding figures were 1598 and 1292, respectively. Altogether 817 eligible (no “do not know” answers and same responding parent in both years) child-parent pairs were included in the analyses. Responses to fear questions were dichotomized: those responding “quite” or “very afraid” were considered to have dental fear and those responding “not afraid”, “slightly afraid” or “afraid to some degree” were considered non-fearful. Associations between dental fear changes were analyzed using crosstabulations. The Ethics Committee of the Northern Ostrobothnia Hospital District and the City of Pori gave their approval for the study.
Result: In 2001, in 4% of dyads both parent and child had dental fear and in 74% of the dyads both parent and child were non-fearful. Of the fearful dyads, in 34% both remained fearful, in 14% both turned non-fearful, and in 52% either the parent or the child turned non-fearful. Of the non-fearful dyads, in 86% both remained non-fearful, in 1% both turned fearful, and in 13% either parent or the child turned fearful.
Conclusion: Changes in children’s and their parents’ dental fear seem often take place independently of each other.