Factors Influencing Dental Avoidance Behavior among Adolescents in India-Application of Contemplation Ladder

Health workers are incessantly in dilemma as to why people healthy or otherwise avoid health professionals. This study aimed at establishing an association between the dental ladder and numerous psychosocial factors associated with dental avoidance in an adolescent population using a Contemplation Ladder. This study is an analytical cross-sectional study which evaluates attitudes of subjects towards their oral health and future intentions to go to a dentist in the coastal city of Mangalore. The Dental Contemplation Ladder is based on the ladder developed by Biener and Abrams. The questionnaires used in the study included the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS, the Dental Neglect Scale (DNS) and the Revised Dental Beliefs Survey (R-DBS). The Pearson chi square association between the ladder scores and gender showed high statistical significance (p <0.001) with females having higher ladder scores than males. A one-way ANOVA demonstrated a significant difference between the variables with (p<0.05) for all three psychosocial variables. The regression models showed a statistically significant relation between the ladder scores and psycho social variables. The study provides an important link between dental absenteeism and different psychological and social parameters and the interrelation and association of these to the differing stages of change in adolescent population.