Changes in Finnish children's dental fear and caries occurrence

Objectives: Our aim was to compare the occurrence of caries and dental fear of children in 2001 and in 1998. Additionally, we examined what features of dental treatment children feared most often. Methods: The subjects were 3-, 6-, 9-, 12- and 15-year-olds in two middle-sized cities in Finland. The sizes of the original random samples in both cities were 180 for each age group. Children's caries status was examined clinically and radiographically by two calibrated dentists. Dental fear in general and fear of 10 different treatment situations were measured with 5-point Likert-scale questions by a questionnaire filled out at home. Age-specific percentages of children who had experienced caries (DMFS+dmfs>0) and were quite or very afraid of treatment situations were calculated. The number of participants with complete data was 1403. Results: The age-specific percentages of children with caries experience were lower in 1998 (4, 32, 58, 38, 30%) than in 2001 (10, 40, 64, 55, 67%). The percentages of children who feared dental treatment situations were rather similar in 2001 and 1998. Pain (8, 21, 17, 14, 19% in 2001 vs. 4, 7, 16, 15, 25% in 1998), drilling (3, 15, 12, 10, 15% in 2001 vs. 2, 14, 10, 15, 19% in 1998) and local anaesthesia (3, 10, 13, 10, 13% in 2001 vs. 2, 8, 11, 12, 14% in 1998) were the procedures children at different ages reported to be most often afraid of. Children feared different procedures at different ages. Conclusions: The percentages of caries-free children were lower in 2001 than in 1998 but the increase in the percentage of having caries experience did not reflect as an increase in the percentages of children fearing dental treatment situations. This study was supported by the Juho Vainio Foundation.