Evaluation of two questionnaires in the screening for dental anxiety

Objectives: Despite all technological advancements over the past years, dental anxiety remains a common problem. Short questionnaires filled out before the start of dental treatment could help clinicians to screen the dental anxiety level of their patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate two anxiety questionnaires for everyday use in a dental practice. Methods: By means of a street interview, participants were contacted at random to fill out both the Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) and the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) questionnaires. Results: 697 people were contacted, 279 refused to participate (response rate 60.0%), leaving a sample size of N=418. The mean DAS score was 8.12 (SD +/- 3.53) and the mean MDAS score 9,15 (SD +/- 4.54). The internal consistency was measured using Cronbachs Alpha and was considered very high both for DAS (0.936) and MDAS (0.936). The correlation between DAS and MDAS, measured by Pearson's correlation coefficient, was also high (0.872). However, the contribution of each question to the overall dental anxiety DAS and MDAS score appeared different (Friedman test). For the DAS questionnaire the mean score for the first question was significantly (p=1.15E-98) higher than for the other three questions. For the MDAS questionnaire the mean score for the third and fifth question was significantly higher (p=1.30E-57) than for the other questions, indicating a greater fear for drilling and injections. Conclusions: Within a clinical setting both questionnaires could be useful. They are both very short, easy to complete and allow a quick screening of the anxiety level of patients. However, the MDAS questionnaire gives detailed information about the fear for injections, which is very common in everyday practice.