A Cross Sectional Study on Dental Anxiety and State Anxiety Related to Removal of Fixed Partial Dentures

Overview

This study aims to evaluate the effect of the clinical removal of fixed partial dentures (FPDs) on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and the anxiety values of individuals and to determine the risk factors of high anxiety levels. 300 participants were included in this study. Six different reasons for the clinical removal of FPDs (oral examination, denture renewal, root canal treatment, tooth extraction, periodontal treatment, and composite filling restoration) were defined. Questions pertaining to the United Kingdom Oral Health-Related Quality-of-Life Measure (OHQoL-UK), the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS), and the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory - State (STAI-S) and Trait (STAI-T) were answered.

Data were obtained by questionnaires (United Kingdom Oral Health-Related Quality-of-Life Measure, the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale, the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory - State and Trait) after written consent was obtained from all participants. The United Kingdom Oral Health-Related Quality-of-Life Measure (OHQoL-UK) scale is a Likert-type scale, which evaluates the effects of individuals' OHRQoL on 16 main areas in four different categories (symptoms, physical condition, psychological status, and social status) in both positive areas and negative areas, where "1" indicates a very bad impact, "2" denotes a bad effect, "3" represents no effect, "4" indicates a good effect and "5" denotes a very good impact. The minimum and maximum scores can be recorded: 2-10 for the symptom category, 5-25 for the physical condition category, 5-25 for the psychological state category, and 4-20 for the social status category, while the total OHQoL-UK score can be recorded as 16-80. A high OHRQoL score indicates a high quality of life in the relevant category. The Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) measures dental anxiety with five questions. The total score can be obtained by adding the scores obtained from five different answer options ranging from 1 (not anxious) to 5 (extremely anxious) in response to the answers given to the five questions about dental anxiety. The total scores of MDAS, which ranged from 5-25, can be divided into two categories "no dental anxiety to moderate dental anxiety" (5-18) and "high dental anxiety" (19-25) points. Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory has two subscales state anxiety- STAI-S and trait anxiety STAI-T. STAI- state anxiety, measures subjective feelings of apprehension, 'anxious' expectation. STAI- trait anxiety, measures individual differences in anxiety proneness. The STAI consists of 40 items, 20 for each subscale. Items are ordered on a Likert scale from 1 (not at all/almost never) to 4 (very much so/almost always), and some items are reverse-scored. Individuals are asked to indicate how they feel "right now, at this moment" for the STAI-state and how they "generally feel" for the STAI-trait. State (STAI-S) and Trait (STAI-T) scores are obtained by the reverse expressions subtracted from the score of the direct expressions and adding the constant 50 to the state score and the constant 35 to the trait score. A high STAI-S and STAI-T scores indicate a high level of anxiety. Individuals with scores ≥45 on the STAI-S and STAI-T scales can be classified as having high anxiety.