Associação entre experiências odontológicas na infância e o medo frente ao tratamento odontológico entre universitários das áreas de odontologia, psicologia e matemática

• Ano de defesa: 2011
• Autor(a) principal: Mauricio Antonio de Oliveira
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; UFMG
• Palavras-chave em Português: Medo de dentistas; Pesquisa em odontologia; Odontopediatria; Ansiedade ao tratamento odontológico; Fobia ao tratamento odontológico
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/1843/ZMRO-8JVP66

Despite the scientific and technological advancements, dental fear is still a barrier to oral health services and is associated with the patients past experiences. Thus, this study examined the prevalence of fear towards dental treatment and the association with dental experiences in childhood among undergraduate students from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil. A retrospective cross-sectional census type study was conducted with students enrolled in dentistry, psychology and mathematics at UFMG, from August to December 2010. A total of 1256 students participated, 505 of dentistry (40.2%), psychology 442 (35.2%) and 309 mathematics (24.6%), with a mean age of 22.3 years and female predominance (62.9%) who responded to the validated Brazilian version of the Dental Fear Survey (DFS) and other self-administered questionnaire with questions about past dental experiences. The statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 17.0) and included descriptive analysis, bivariate, by using the chi-square test and Mann-Whitney, and the Poisson regression model, with 5% significance. The sum of DFS was fractionated into terciles to categorize groups of low fear (DFS<27), moderate fear (27DFS<37) and high fear (DFS37). Associations were made between the three groups of DFS and three undergraduate courses, and between the three groups of DFS of each course with previous dental experiences. Psychology undergraduates had a higher prevalence of high-fear (52.0%) compared to mathematics (36.6%) and dentistry (17.6%), and this difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). Negative dental experiences in childhood were significantly associated with high fear in adulthood in three courses (dentistry, 95% CI: 1.07-1.69; psychology, 95% CI: 1.21-1.50; mathematics, 95% CI: 1.12-1.74). Undergraduates who went to the dentist for operative treatments had a higher prevalence of high fear from those who were for routine examination (p<0.05). It was concluded that undergraduates of psychology and mathematics had a higher prevalence of high dental fear compared to dentistry, ant that negative dental experiences in childhood were associated with the presence of fear towards dental treatment in adulthood.