Methods: The participants were a convenience sample of 109 child patients (50.5% female) who newly visited and were seen regularly in the Pediatric Dental Clinic at Okayama University Dental Hospital for at least two years. Mean age at their first visit was 5.6 year (SD=1.7, 3-8). On behalf of the children, the guardians completed the Japanese parental version of the Dental Subscale of Children’s Fear Survey Schedule (CFSS-DS) three times. The first was on their first visit (T1), the second was one year later but not over two years of their first visit (T2), and the third was another one year later but not over two years after T2 (T3). One-way repeated measure analysis of variance was performed to assess whether the total CFSS-DS scores would decrease over T1, T2, and T3. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the score at T1, T2, and T3 by age (3-8) with the results from the previous study in which subjects attended primary and kindergarten schools in non-clinical setting.
Results: The mean total CFSS-DS score at T1, T2, and T3 were 38.1 (SD=13.2), 25.5 (SD=6.8), and 23.8 (SD=7.1) respectively. The mean total CFSS-DS score decreased significantly over the whole period (T1-T3). The score at T1 at any age was not significantly different from the results of the previous study. However, the score at T2 and T3, except at 8 years of age, were significantly lower than those of the previous study.
Conclusions: It was suggested that a regular attendance would decrease dental fear. Also, dental fear of patients who were regularly attending the dental clinic was significantly lower than those in non-clinical setting.