The Application of the MCDAS_f in the Clinical Arena

Objective: To assess the application of a face modification of the Modified Child Dental Anxiety Scale (MCDAS_f) as a new measure of child dental anxiety in the clinical arena. Method: A convenience sample of all new child patients aged 5-10 years or children attending for a continuing care were invited with parents to participate. The parents completed a questionnaire which inquired about family demography, dental anxiety measured by the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) and their child's dental general anaesthetic experience (DGA). The children completed the MCDAS_f. The children's gender was recorded. Data were subjected to t-tests. Results: There were 200 parent and child pairs included in the study. 103 were boys. The mean MDAS score was 11.15 (±4.96) which was greater than the normative (12.87±5.60) (t=3.48: p<0.001). The mean score on the MCDAS_f was 22.24 (± which was significantly greater than the normative (18.2 ± 7.14) (t=6.44: p<0.001). The mean MCDAS_f score was significantly greater for those children with DGA compared to those without DGA experience. When the individual MCDAS_f items were compared between children there were significant differences in mean scores for those with high compared with low dental anxiety (p<0.05), girls compared with boys (p<0.05), and those with and without DGA experience (p<0.01). Conclusions: Children with experience of DGA had significantly greater mean scores on the MCDAS_f. Individual item scores on the MCDAS_f varied by level of child dental anxiety, by gender and DGA experience.