title: Prevalence and predictive factors of dental anxiety in Brazilian adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and predicitve factors of dental anxiety among Brazilian adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional study of a random sample of 340 Brazilian adolescents, done between 2005 and 2010. Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale and an objective questionnaire were used to determine the degree of dental anxiety.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of moderate to severe dental anxiety was approximately 18%. Dental anxiety was correlated with the following factors: gender (P<.05), age group (P<.001), degree of schooling (P<.001), access to newspapers and/or the Internet (P<02), oral hygiene frequency (P=.005), visits to the dentist (P<.02), reason for last visit to the dentist (P<.001), and experience with dental pain (P=.002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dental fear and anxiety in Brazilian adolescents are associated with lack of economic resources, negligence of oral health, low educational level, female gender, and younger age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Pernambuco School of Dentistry, University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil. wathson@ig.com.br
authors.forename: Ricardo Wathson Feitosa
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: de Carvalho
authors.forename: Paulo Germano
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: de Carvalho Bezerra Falcão
authors.forename: Gustavo José
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: de Luna Campos
authors.forename: Emanuel Sávio
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: de Souza Andrade
authors.forename: Belmiro Cavalcanti
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: do Egito Vasconcelos
authors.forename: Maria Auxiliadora
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: da Silva Pereira
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001938:Brazil; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D003729:Dental Care / Q000009:adverse effects; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires