Influência da saúde bucal na ocorrência de medo odontológico em adolescentes e adultos jovens.

Abstract

Introduction: Dental fear is characterized by abnormal fear or dread of visiting the dentist for therapeutic or preventive care and unwarranted anxiety about dental procedures. Fear may be associated with a lower frequency of visits to the dentist, which may interfere with oral health conditions and, consequently, with the quality of life of individuals of any age group. Objective: To evaluate the association between caries experience, self-perception of oral health and dental fear in adolescents and young adults.Objective: To evaluatethe prevalence of dental fear in young adults and its association with dental caries experience and oral health self-perception. Method: This is a longitudinal study about oral health among school children evaluated in 2012 and in 2021, involving aspects related to dental fear and its associated factors, in Santa Cruz do Sul (RS). The data were collected from april to december 2012 and from july to december 2021. For this study was used the question: “Are you afraid of going to the dentist?”, collected in 2021, with answer options “No”, “Yes, a few” and “Yes, a lot”. For data analysis the anwers were categorized into “Yes” (‘Yes, a few’ and ‘Yes, a lot’) and “No”. Was considered dental caries experience, through the CPOD index, in children and adolescents, evaluated in 2012, and data related with variables sociodemographic and oral health selfperception, obtained in 2021. The statistical analyzes were performed using Poisson regression with robust variance, to investigate the influence of predictor variables on dental fear. The results are presented in Rate Ratio (RR) with their respective Confidence Intervals (95% CI). Results: 202 individuals between 18 and 27 years old participated in the research. Most participants were female (66.34%), with 54.24% aged between 18 and 22 years. The fear of going to the dentist was reported by 17.33% of the participants. In the adjusted analysis, oral health self-perception regular or poor (RR 2.42; IC 95% 1.10 – 5.30) and a bigger caries severity (CPOD ≥ 4) in the childhood (RR 2.53; IC 95% 1.10 – 5.84), showed association with dental fear (p<0,05). Conclusion: Dental fear is multicausal and showed association with caries severity in the childhood and adolescence and oral health selfperception. Thereby the importance of oral health promotion strategies since the first years of life.