Adult Dental Fear During Pregnancy – The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study

Objectives: Being very afraid of a dentist is still a prevalent problem, especially in younger age groups. In our pilot study, pregnancy in a family seemed to cause fluctuations of dental fear. Changes were different among women and men, which were suggested to be explained by hormonal factors.

The objectives of this study were to (i) evaluate the course of dental fear during pregnancy and shortly after delivering the baby and (ii) to compare these findings to those of our pilot study with a smaller study population.
Methods: Longitudinal data for the FinnBrain Birth Cohort study were used. The study used Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) at three different data collection points: 14 gestational weeks (n=3095 women, n=2011 men), 34 gestational weeks (n=2609 women, n=1507 men) and three months after the delivery (n=2257 women, n=1297 men). In this study, those who had answered all three MDAS questionnaires, were included (n=1984 women, n=1082 men). MDAS sum scores, means and ranges were calculated. MDAS sum scores were trichotomized to three groups: no dental fear (5-9), low dental fear (10-18) and high dental fear (19-25). Changes in MDAS scores during the study were analyzed with the Friedman test.
Results: There were statistically significant changes in dental fear during the study. Mean MDAS scores at three data collection points were 10.5, 10.3 and 10.9 for women and 9.0, 9.0 and 9.3 for men. The prevalence of high fear was 7.3%, 7.4% and 9.3% among women and 3.5%, 3.1% and 3.9% among men.
Conclusions: Women’s dental fear slightly decreased towards late pregnancy but increased again after the delivery. Men’s fear fluctuated similarly in this population though the changes were smaller. The course of dental fear among women was similar as in our previous study but differed among men