Maternal and Child Dental Anxiety: is there a Relationship?

Objectives: To establish if a relationship exists between: a) maternal self reported dental anxiety and 3-5 year old children's self reported dental anxiety, b) maternal self reported dental anxiety and maternal reporting of 3-5 year old children's dental anxiety. Methods: Following ethical approval, 88 children without previous experience of general anaesthesia were recruited at the time of dental general anaesthesia assessment. The child's age, gender, number of teeth being extracted and partial post code (to enable calculation of deprivation category) were recorded. A Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), a 10 cm line where ‘0' was no anxiety and '10 ' was maximum anxiety, was completed by the child pertaining to their own dental anxiety. Two Modified Child Dental Anxiety Scales (MCDAS) were completed by the mother, the first pertaining to her own dental anxiety and the second to her child's. Results: The children's median age was 4 (range 3-5) years, 46 (52%) were male, with the mean number of teeth extracted being 7.0 (SD 3.6; range 1-16). 72% of the sample were from the most deprived socio-economic groups (DEPCAT 5-7). The median child VAS was 2 (range 0-10). The median child MCDAS and maternal MCDAS were 22.5 (range 8-40) and 26 (range 8-40) respectively. 16 children (18%) were classified as dentally phobic (MCDAS> 31). Using Spearman's rank Correlation Coefficient, no significant relationship was evident between maternal self reported dental anxiety (MCDAS- mother) and child self reported dental anxiety (VAS) (r=0.099, p= 0.360). Furthermore, no significant relationship was evident between maternal self reported dental anxiety (MCDAS-mother) and maternal reporting of child dental anxiety (MCDAS-child) (r= 0.125, p=0.246). Conclusion: In this study there was no relationship between a) maternal self reported dental anxiety and child self reported dental anxiety, b) maternal self reported dental anxiety and maternal reporting of child dental anxiety.