title: Salivary Alpha Amylase as a Noninvasive Biomarker for Dental Fear and Its Correlation with Behavior of Children during Dental Treatment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  OBJECTIVEs of our studies were to predict dental fear in a child patient depending on salivary alpha amylase (sAA) level before and after dental treatment and to evaluate correla-tion of later with behavior of child patient during dental treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy-seven children between age of 5 and 12 years were divided in three groups. Group 1 consisted of 25 school children who did not undergo any dental treatment. Groups 2 and 3 underwent dental treatment without and with local anesthesia respectively. Groups 2 and 3 were administered child fear survey schedule-dental subscale (CFSS-DS) questionnaire before treatment. Salivary samples were collected for sAA estimation in groups 2 and 3 children before and after completion of dental treatment and behavior during treatment was noted using Frankel behavior rating scale. Group 1 acted as control in which salivary sample was collected in absence of dental stress.
  
  
  RESULTS
  When groups 2 and 3 were combined, pretreatment sAA level had a statistically significant (p = 0.0094) correlation with CFSS-DS scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Alpha amylase can be used as a screening tool to predict level of dental fear in a child patient. How to cite this article: Noorani H, Joshi HV, Shivaprakash PK. Salivary Alpha Amylase as a Noninvasive Biomarker for Dental Fear and Its Correlation with Behavior of Children during Dental Treatment. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2014;7(1):19-23.
authors.affiliation: Professor and Head, Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, PM Nadagouda Memorial Dental College and Hospital, Bagalkot Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Hina
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Noorani
authors.affiliation: Postgraduate Student, Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, PM Nadagouda Memorial Dental College and Hospital, Bagalkot Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Hrishikesh V
authors.initials: HV
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, PM Nadagouda Memorial Dental College and Hospital, Bagalkot Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Pk
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shivaprakash
keywords: Child fear survey schedule-dental subscale; Dental fear; Salivary alpha amylase