The Effect of Participation of Clinical Dental Hygiene Care Program on the Level of Dental Fear in Some Adults

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of dental fear on oral health and to check whether dental fear can be controlled by participating in dental hygiene program.

The dental fear index was measured by the Dental Anxiety Scale, which was composed of 4 items. The lowest point was 0 point (very comfortable) and the highest point was 20 point (very terrifying) at the Dental Anxiety Scale. The changes in dental fear index before and after participating in the dental hygiene care program was measured using the McNemar's test and the significance level was set at 0.05.

This study was conducted on 91 subjects who participated in the dental hygiene care program conducted by the Department of Dental Hygiene at B University in Cheonan, South Korea. The mean age of the subjects was 24.5 years. Among the subjects, male participants were 44 (48.4%) and female participants were 47 (51.6%). The effect of dental hygiene care program by the dental hygienist on the characteristics of the subjects did not show any difference in dental phobia with the gender before the program, but it was confirmed that the dental fear was lowered slightly after the participation of dental hygiene care program. The effect of dental fear reduction by the dental hygiene care program was greater for women than for men. And, the more oral health education program was conducted in recent years, the greater the effect of dental fear reduction by the dental hygiene care program. The dental fear index was 8.98 before participating in the dental hygiene care program, but it decreased to 5.60 after participating. In conclusion, dental hygiene care program was found to effectively reduce dental fear.

Dental hygiene care program could be effectively reduced dental fear of the subjects. Thus, dental hygienists should try to control their fear by understanding these characteristics of the patients.