Dental fear among children of foreign background in a multicultural area in Stockholm

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ABSTRACT

Aim

To investigate the occurrence of dental fear among children of foreign background in the city of Södertälje, Sweden.

Methods

Design: Prospective, cross sectional study. The participants comprised 231 7-year-old children with appointments for examination at the Södertälje Public Dental Service. The regular examination was performed, and dental fear was measured according to the parental version of the Children’s Fear Survey Schedule Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS). Parents were also asked to fill in a questionnaire covering social background and previous experience of dental care. The study group, which consisted of children of foreign background, was compared to a reference group without foreign background.

Results

High CFSS-DS values were more frequent in children of foreign background. Dental fear was also significantly correlated to having experienced painful treatment. Parental dental fear had an influence on dental fear in the child. Statistics: Ordinal logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the influence potential predictors on the dependent variable CFSS-DS. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that, in a dental treatment situation, children of foreign background experience more fear than children of Swedish background. More research is needed to clarify this issue.

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