Comparison of oral health and dental anxiety in children with oppositional defiant disorder and healthy children

Abstract

Psychiatric disorders have been shown to affect the oral health and dental behavior management problems in children. This study aimed to investigate the relationship of Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) with anxiety and behavior during dental treatment and the condition of oral health in 6-9 year-old children. Material and methods: In this cross-sectional study forty ODD/ADHD cases as study group and 80 healthy subjects as controls were selected to receive an amalgam filling under local anesthesia for carious primary mandibular molars. Child behavior management problems (BMP) and anxiety during the procedure were assessed using Frankl Rating Scale (FRS) and Verbal Skill Scale (VSS). The parents completed the Dental Subscale of ChildrenEs Fear Survey Schedule (CFSS-DS). The data were analyzed with Mann Whitney U and independent samples t-tests Resuils: Children with ODD/ ADHD significantly higher rate of BMP compared to controls (P = 0.003). Differences in the anxiety assessed by VSS (P=0.001) and CFSS-DS (P=0.04) were significant between the study and control groups. Compared with controls, children with ODD/ADHD had significantly higher decayed, missing or filled teeth (DMFT) ( p= 0.004) and dmft (p= 0.01) Conclusion: Children with ODD/ADHD exhibited higher caries frequency, a higher degree of dental anxiety, and had more BMP than children of a control group.