Objective:

To assess the relationship between the Children’s Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS) questionnaire’s items and sex and age in children with moderate and high dental fear levels.

Methods:

Cross-sectional study carried out in a municipality in the Northeastern region of Brazil with 185 children aged 8-10 years of both sexes, who had a minimum score of 32 on the CFSS-DS questionnaire, corresponding to dental fear. Descriptive statistical analysis and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were performed. The significance level adopted was 5%.

Results:

Most children were female (59.5%) and 9 years old (37.3%). The average of the total CFSS-DS score was 40.44 ± 6.81 (with a minimum of 32 and a maximum of 75). According to the CFSS-DS, 53.5% of children had high dental fear. Items “Injections,” “Having a stranger touch you,” “The dentist drilling,” “Having somebody put instruments in your mouth,” “Choking,” and “Having to go to the hospital” had the highest median values. A significant difference was observed between ages for the item “Having a stranger touch you” (p=0.001).

Conclusion:

The item “Having a stranger touch you” in the CFSS-DS questionnaire showed a statistically significant difference with age, while no differences were found regarding sex.

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