Ansiedad dental en estudiantes de primero de Medicina

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of our study was to evaluate dental anxiety among 1st year medical students and finding out if there is any statistical difference between those who wear or have undergone orthodontic treatment and those who have never had it. Material and methods: Once the participants were informed of the nature of the study and signed off the informed consent, 102 MDAS completed questionnaires were got from 102 first year medical students at Francisco de Vitoria University (Spain). 61 out of them have never had gone or were going through orthodontic treatment at the time of the questionnaires. 41 have never had orthodontic treatment. Participant’s age ranged from 18 and 23 years. 30 participants were male (29.4%) and 72 female (70.6%). To determine the statistical association between orthodontic treatment and dental anxiety, Mann-Whitney test was applied and for association between dental phobia (MDAS score ≥ 19) and orthodontic treatment, sex and age, Fisher exact test was used. Results: MDAS mean score in our sample was 11,0±4,8 (female 11,6± 5,2 and male 9,4 ±3,2). 11% of the females and 0% of the males scored MDAS≥19 (dental phobia), which makes 7,8% of participants dental phobic. Gender differences were not significant, although they got close to signification (p=0,10). The small deviation in age (due to the participants being 1st year University students) did not allow a lineal association between dental phobia and age. Conclusion: In our sample, a moderate degree of dental anxiety was prevalent among first year medical students. No correlation was statistically significant between dental phobia and sex, age or previous orthodontic treatment.