Anxiety Levels in Adult Patients in the Dental Office of the Universities’ Master Degree Programs: Advanced Orthodontics Versus Advanced Oral Surgery and Implantology. An Observational Study

Abstract

Introduction: Dental anxiety is categorized by fear triggered by the thought and action of visiting the dentist, or over dental procedures. Dental anxiety affects the patient with fight or flight, exhaustion, fears, as well as avoidance related to eating, hygiene, and social interactions. If not diagnosed, understood or prevented it can complicate, delay or completely prevent the realization of the needed treatments. Objectives: To determine if the masters degrees (advanced orthodontics, advanced oral surgery and implantology), as well as gender, age, education, nature of necessity of treatment, as well as previous treatment, influence anxiety levels in patients. Materials and Methods: A total of 71 patients surveys were collected between January and April 2024, of which 31 were from the implantology masters program, and 40 from the orthodontics masters program. The survey used in this study was the Dental Anxiety Scale in a QR format, including questions to inquire about their gender, age, education level, nature of treatment coming in for, and first time visit. A sample of patients who met inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected. A confidence level of 95% was established, chi-square test and Mann-Whitney test were done, and results with p-value of <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: For all objectives stated, results showed that there was no statistical significance (p>0.05) on either of the groups (masters degree, age, gender, education, treatment necessity, first visit) on the level of anxiety the patients experienced. Conclusion: The most prevalent anxiety level in both masters programs have concluded to be “mild anxiety”. The masters program, gender, age group, education level, necessity of treatment, first time visit didn’t have an influence on the level of anxiety of patients.