The MCDAS Study with Croatian Child Dental Patients

Objectives: The aim of this study was to validate Modified Child Dental Anxiety Scale (MCDAS) developed by Howard and Freeman (2007) and to compare it to child's behaviour ratings on Frankl's and Facial Image Scale. Methods: Assessment of dental anxiety in dental office was carried out in the Croatian sample of 100 child patients (45 boys, and 55 girls), aged from 4 to 17 years (mean = 9.97 years). Child's behaviour ratings before treatment were obtained by dental students, paediatric dentist and children. The child's behaviour was assessed using three scales for behaviour rating: Frankl's Rating Scale, Facial Image Scale (FIS), and face version of MCDAS. Children were asked to rate how they felt on FIS before their treatment. The correlation coefficients between scores obtained by students, dentists, and children using different scales were calculated to establish validity of scales. The Crombach's alpha was calculated to establish internal reliability of the scales. Results: There was a high agreement on the FIS between ratings from the dentists and students (r = 0.826; P < 0.01). Child's ratings on the FIS before treatment showed a high correlations with ratings from students and dentists (r = 0.586; P < 0.01; and r = 0.605; P < 0.01, respectively). The MCDAS was highly correlated with all FIS ratings. Conclusion: High value of Crombach's alpha (á = 0.8641) allow conclusion that all three rating scales provide highly reliable assessment tools of child behaviour in dental office before dental treatment. MCDAS should be regarded as a suitable, simple to administer and reliable instrument for assessing dental anxiety in young children.