Dental Behavior, Dental Anxiety and Personality Traits

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relation between dental behavior, dental anxiety and personality attachment traits among young adult population. Methods: The study population consisted of 450 young adults (18-19 years old) who arrived for dental screening prior to their military service. The survey was based on a questionnaire. The questionnaire was consisted of questions regarding dental behavior (i.e. dental treatments and follow ups frequency, last dental visit etc.) as well as the Corah Dental Anxiety Scale questionnaire (DAS), and the Self Report Measurement of Adult Attachment questionnaire (SRAA) for ratings regarding three adult attachment styles (secure, anxious, and avoidant). Results: Out of the 450, 429 participants completed the questionnaire (95.3% respond rate). Of responding participants, 131 (30.54%) reported they tend to visit their dentist on a regular basis whereas 61 (14.22%) do not visit a dental clinic at all. Last dental visit was reported to be in the previous 2 years by 66.9% of the participants (287) while 11.42% reported they did not visit the dental office during the last 5 years. The average DAS score was 8.5 + 3.3 ranging from 4 to 20. High levels of dental anxiety, as indicated by DAS scores were correlated with less frequent dental visits as well as no visit in a dental clinic over the past few years. Participants scoring high on attachment avoidance were more likely to report on occasional dental visits or no dental visits at all (p=0.03). High DAS scores were found to be more frequent among anxiously attached persons (p<0.0001) as well as among participants scoring high on attachment avoidance (p=0.0013). Conclusions: Our results indicate that it is possible that physiological factors, rather than the dental professional management, have the most impact on patients' responses.