Background:: A convenient sampling methodology was employed to select 777 adolescent patients seeking care from undergraduate dental students. A structured, close-ended Arabic version of the modified dental anxiety scale was self-reported by the patients in the waiting area of the dental clinics. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were applied to compare the dental anxiety scores between groups..
Materials and Methods: The age of the participant ranged from 13-19 years. The majority of the study participants were in the moderate (39.4%) category of dental anxiety, followed by mild (32.6%), severe (14.4%), and high (13.6%). Female patients showed a significantly higher score on the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale compared to the males (13.46±0.21 vs. 10.98±0.27, p<0.001). Patients having university education showed a higher mean score (13.29±0.32), followed by middle school (12.75±.36), high school (12.11 ±.25), and elementary school (11.29±1.72). However, the educational level did not show any significant effect on dental anxiety (p=0.053).
Results: The majority of adolescent patients treated by dental students showed moderate degrees of dental anxiety. However, dental phobia was found in 14.4% of adolescents. Females demonstrated a higher degree of dental anxiety than males. The level of education did not display any impact on dental anxiety among adolescents in this study.
