• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.361-367
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• 2019

Background: Although studies on dental fear in relation to sex and age have been conducted, there have been few nationwide studies particularly on the youth sector. In addition, no validity and reliability verifications have been implemented for new research groups on the Korean version of the Dental Fear Survey (K-DFS). Therefore, this study aimed to apply the K-DFS developed in a previous study on Korean youth to draw conclusions on dental fear among the youth. Methods: This study used the K-DFS, a Korean translation of Kleinknecht's Dental Fear Survey for elementary school, middle school, and high school students. This study selected 2,161 young people of various ages as participants and increased the validity of the research results by expanding nationwide the scope of the study area. Results: Differences in fear levels according to sex were higher in boys fear behavior scores than in girls' regarding dental treatment (P < 0.05). Students with dental fear had higher scores on items associated with dental treatment and fear of dental stimuli compared with students without dental fear (P < 0.05). Differences were observed among the three groups (P < 0.05). However, the results of logistic regression analysis showed no statistically significant differences for dental visits based on sex, grade, and other subcomponents (P > 0.05). Conclusion: By verifying the validity of the newly developed K-DFS, this research confirmed its utility as a dental fear questionnaire. Therefore, there can be no objection that the grounds for criticism have been established according to conventional wisdom. In the future, however, developing and studying the limits of K-DFS that overcome the factors of dental fear, especially pain, will help reduce dental fear in adolescents.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Esthetic Dentistry
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 2019

Objective: Dental fear is a feeling of anxiety and fear without intervention during a dental visit, mainly due to past negative dental treatment experiences, and in adults, despite the recognition of the need for dental treatment, it can lead to avoidance of dental treatment, which may cause deterioration of oral health. Therefore, this study was conducted to measure dental fear and anxiety level in some adults, and to identify related factors and their causes. Methods: This study used Kleinknecht's Dental Fear Survey scale and the SPSS 21 program (IBM SPSS Statistics 21) was used for analysis. Result: When the dental fear was the higher, the "access to the dental clinic" was found to be the highest, followed by "sitting in dental unit chair" and "smell of dental clinic" in that order. Conclusions: Dentists and dental hygienists should be able to understand the fear, anxiety, and concerns of the dentist office and to find various ways to provide systematic medical services.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.251-259
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• 2014

Objectives : The purpose of the study was to investigate the overall research trend and change in dental fear during 9 years(2004-2012) and to identify the major outcomes and future directions to research. Methods : Descriptive literature review was conducted for dental fear in Korea. The research setting should be elementary, middle, high schools and adults. Results : In this study, the literature review of the most used tools to measure fear was that DFS. The most commonly used instrument was Dental Fear Survey(DFS) in the literature review. The number of dacayed tooth was proportional to subjective fear and anxiety. The indirect experience of dental pain was heard from family and friends. So the fear caused the patients to have negative bias toward dental treatment. The negative reliability towards the dentist increased the dental fear to the patients. Conclusions : Through the literature review, dental hygienists are able to understand the dental fear of the patients.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.881-886
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• 2014

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to investigate the related factors to dental fear in some adults. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was filled out by 320 adults in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do from April to June, 2013. Except 14 incomplete answers, data were analyzed by SPSS 18.0 program. The questionnaire consisted of general characteristics of the subjects(7 questions), dental fear related factor(18 questions), distrust for dentist(15 questions), and distrust for dental hygienist(11 questions). The instrument for dental treatment fear was Dental fear Survey(DFS) adapted from Kleinknecht and partly modified by Choi. Out of 20 questions, 18 questions were reconstructed and score by Likert 5 scale. Higher score means higher dental fear. Cronbach alpha was 0.959 in the study. The distrust for dentist and dental hygienist was adapted from Choi and reconstructed and score by Likert 5 scale. Higher score means higher distrust for dentist and dental hygienist. Cronbach alpha was 0.937 in distrust for dentist and 0.874 in distrust for dental hygienist in the study. Results: Those who experienced dental pain tended to have dental fear. The reasons for dental fear were as follows; bad breath(2.96 out of 5 points, hereafter represented as of 2.96/5), dental caries(2.88/5), missing teeth(2.87/5) and tooth pain(2.77/5). The distrust for the dentist was the main dental fear in the adults. Conclusions: The dental fear was closely related to gender, experience of dental pain, oral symptoms and distrust for the dentist. As the psychological pain in the patients was mainly influenced by the trustful atmosphere, it is necessary to make the patient easy before treatment.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.98-104
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• 2013

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to measure the fear of dental care and analyze the related factors between reliability for members in dental office and fear of dental care, dental office. Methods : Located in Gwangju, 260 college women who had dental experience in the past year were surveyed. SPSS windows ver. 11.0 by demographic characteristics and oral health characteristics of the frequency and percentage, and related factors in the fear of dental care and the reliability about dental health care workers of one way ANOVA, Tukey test for Post-Hoc test. and were factors associated with dental fear of the stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed. Results : The fear will be higher when subjective oral health status is considered lower, the reliability of dental health care workers is lower(p<0.05). Evasion and overall fear, overall fear and stimulations of dental care, stimulations of dental care and overall feeling were related(p<0.05). Conclusions : The reliability of dental health care workers is lower and subjective oral health status is considered lower, the fear of dental care increase and everage number of brushing has increased, the fear of dental care decrease.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.461-476
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• 1996

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of dental experience on the attitude of children toward the dentist and the dental treatment. The subjects of the study were 1,090 children from second grade to forth grade of three elementary schools of the Iksan city. The children were investigated by the questionnaire which consisted of seven items about the attitude toward the dentist, the attitude toward the dental treatment, the dental reatment experience, the number of times of dental treatment, the last time of the dental visit, pain of dental treatment, and fear of dental treatment. There were significant differences among the grades in the attitude toward the dental treatment and in the attitude toward the dentist (P<0.01). Second grade children had the most negative attitudes. But, there were no differences between boys and girls. Girls felt more pain and fear than boys (P<0.01). There were significant relationships between the pain and the attitude toward the dentist, between the pain and the attitude toward the dental treatment, between the fear and the attitude toward the dentist, and between the fear and the attitude toward the dental treatment (P<0.01, all). The number of dental visit had significant relationship with the attitude toward the dental treatment (P<0.05). There were significant relationships between the pain and the fear and between the attitude toward the dentist and the attitude toward the dental treatment.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.277-285
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine the influential relationship between the type of dental treatment and the dental fear of teens in a bid to seek ways of relieving adolescents of dental anxiety and fear. The subjects were teenaged students in South Gyeongsang Province. After a survey was conducted for eight days from December 2 to 9, 2009, the answer sheets from 420 students were analyzed. The findings of the study were as follows: When a correlation analysis was employed to look for connections between dental treatment experiences and dental fear, the components of dental treatment experiences had a significant correlation to those of dental fear. As a result of making a regression analysis, overall dental fear was under the significant influence of prosthodontic treatment experiences, and avoidance of dentistry was significantly affected by conservative treatment experiences. Oral and maxillofacial treatment experiences had a significant impact on physiologic response, and dental stimulus was significantly affected by prosthodontic treatment experiences. Therefore dental institutions should direct their efforts into the development of manuals geared toward different types of treatment and different patients in order for adolescents to receive dental treatment without any anxiety or fear, to get a regular dental checkup, to receive more preventive treatment, to promote their oral health and ultimately to lead a healthy life.

• Journal of Korean Dental Hygiene Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.89-98
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• 2021

Background: To analyze the effect of self-regulation on the fear of dental treatment in order to use it as basic data for efficient oral health care among male adolescents. Methods: A survey was administered to 241 first graders of specialized high schools in Daegu using a self-entry method. Twenty questions about fear of dental treatment and fifteen questions about self-regulation were included. The higher the score, the higher the fear of dental treatment and the self-regulation ability, showing a high reliability of 0.972 and 0.750, respectively. Results: The mean score of the participants' self-regulation ability was 3.25±0.51 and that of the degree of fear for dental treatment was relatively low at 1.72±0.85. It was confirmed that the higher the academic performance (F=7.635, p<0.01), the better was the self-regulation based on self-diagnosis (F=3.142, p<0.05), and was associated with higher health awareness (F=5.894, p<0.01). The degree of fear for dental treatment was significantly higher in the self-diagnosis-induced poor health group (F=4.933, p<0.01) and associated with a lower awareness of health (F=3.093, p<0.05). The participants' self-regulation ability was significantly negatively correlated with the degree of fear regarding dental treatment (r=-0.269, p<0.01). Regression analysis was performed using the degree of fear as a dependent variable and including sub-area variables of self-diagnosis-based health status, perception of health, and self-regulation ability as independent variables (β=-0.163, p<0.05). Among the self-regulation abilities, controlled composition (β=-0.232, p<0.01) had a significant effect; the higher the composition, the lower the degree of fear. The total explanatory power of this variable was 8.5%. Conclusion: An appropriate customized education program that can encourage individuals to practice self-care and maintain oral hygiene along with a clear understanding of underlying individual oral health conditions during adolescence is essential for promoting oral health.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.193-196
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• 2007

From April 9th to May 4th 2007, making a random selection of three private dental clinics in Busan, this study investigated the fear for dental treatment for 178 adults over twenty. Using four items of General Characteristics and DFS of twenty items, the degree of fear for dental treatment was evaluated by self administrated questionnaire. The obtained results were as follows. 1. Reliability analysis of each factor in details was 0.662~0.921 in Cronbach' alpha Coefficients. For Cronbach' alpha Coefficients was over 0.6. Dental Fear Survey Scale was reliable. 2. Dental stimulus response scale of three factors appeared more fear than two factors of the rest. The fear for dental treatment was higher in wemen, older ages, high education level and high income. 3. Factor of dental stimulus response scale, avoidance of dentistry and physiologic response scale accounted for 66.1%($R^2=66.1$)of the variation in dental fear factor as a result from stepwise regression analysis.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.335-346
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• 2018

Objectives: This study was conducted to examine the degree of dental fear according to the experiences of the preventive dental care services. Methods: A self-administered survey was conducted in the subjects of male and female teenagers who lived in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do areas, and 231 copies of collected data for a month from July 26, 2017 were analyzed to find the following results. Results: In terms of the experiences of the preventive dental care services, they were classified in the order of preventive scaling (67.5%), education of toothbrushing (60.6%), fluoride application (49.8%) and sealant (44.2%). For the degree of dental fear according to their general characteristics, treatment avoidance factor ($2.56{\pm}1.19$) in the married was higher than that in the unmarried. All of treatment avoidance, physiological response and fearful stimulus induction factor, and the entire degree of fear were higher when there were experiences of the preventive dental care services than those without such experiences. The factors affecting the degree of dental fear included dental health conditions, experiences of toothbrushing education, sealant and fluoride application. In case those without the experiences considered their dental health condition was not healthy, the degree of dental fear was increased. Conclusions: This study verified that the degree of dental fear was increased in case no experiences of the preventive dental care services. Therefore, it is necessary to seek out the measures for promotion of the preventive dental care services, to reduce the degree of dental fear and enhance the dental health.