Stress amongst primary dental care patients.
OBJECTIVE
to determine the prevalence of dental fear amongst primary dental care units (PDCU) patients and to characterize them according to socio-demographic features.


METHODS
non-probabilistic sampling on new and consecutive patients demanding exodontia at the Burela, Praza do Ferrol and Viveiro (Lugo) PDCUs from 9 january to 7 march and from 18 june to 21 september 2007. The variables considered were "demographic" (age, gender, address and educational level), "treatment-related" (reason for extraction, root extraction), "attitudes" (accompanied yes/no, spontaneous fear comments yes/no) and "stress" determined using a visual analogue scale (VAS).


RESULTS
A total of 804 patients entered the study. The mean VAS value was 3.54+/-2.63 (range 0 to 10; median 2.95; mode 0). A 96.8% referred some degree of stress, and a 10.1% of the sample scored high values (>7.5 in the scale). These values resulted to be influenced by sex (p=0.000), address (p=0.025) and by the presence of an accompanying person in the room (p=0.008). Logistic regression analysis identifies female gender (OR=3.26; 95%CI: 1.93 , 5.49), urban (OR=2.02 95%CI: 1.04 , 3.91) or rural (OR=2.16; 95%CI: 1.15 , 4.08) address and the absence of an accompanying person in the room (OR=1.68; 95%CI: 1.05 , 2.70) as predictors for a high level of stress.


CONCLUSIONS
A 10.1% of the patients experience a high level of stress before tooth extraction. This phenomenon is more common among unaccompanied women from rural or urban areas.
Rodríguez Vázquez
Luis Miguel
LM
Centro de Salud de Burela, Lugo, Spain.
Rubiños López
Emilio
E
Varela Centelles
Almudena
A
Blanco Otero
Ana Isabel
AI
Varela Otero
Flor
F
Varela Centelles
Pablo
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003729:Dental Care; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology*