Association Between Dental Anxiety and Oral Health-Related Quality of Life

Abstract Objectives this study aimed to examine the association between both parental and children’s anxiety and its impact on the Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) of Saudi children in Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Methods Data on 93 individuals aged of 7–12 years were collected using clinical examination and Arabic validated questionnaires of Child Oral Health Impact Profile-Short Form (COHIP-SF19) and Children’s Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS). Negative binomial regression analysis and logistic regression analysis was done to study the association between children and parental dental anxiety as well as OHRQoL while adjusting for certain confounders. Results Overall, our multivariate analyses showed that children with high dental anxiety (CFSS-DS ≥ 38) (p = 0.027) and higher percentage of dental caries (p = 0.013) had a significantly lower OHRQoL after adjusting for clinical and socio-demographic factors. Further, the odds of having high dental anxiety in children increased by 12.97 (95%CI: 1.29-130.77) with every one-unit increase in parental dental fear. Conclusion Our findings demonstrate that children’s anxiety and dental caries are both associated with poorer OHRQoL. Further, parental fear of dentists was associated with children’s fear of dentists.