Evaluation and comparison of anxiety in preterm Children and term children aged 4-6 years undergoing restorative treatment

Abstract

Background: A preterm newborn is defined as a baby born before 36 weeks and 6 days of gestational age. Very preterm is used to describe babies born between 29 and 32 weeks, and extremely preterm to describe children born between 23 and 28 weeks. Dental anxiety evokes physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses in an individual. It is a frequently encountered problem in dental offices. Therefore, this study evaluated the level of anxiety in premature children to identify and understand the behavioral management problems of these children during dental treatment to allocate the necessary time and methods to treat them. Methods: In this croo sectional study a total of 127 premature children born under 29 weeks of gestational age in Al-Zahra Hospital of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences between 2015 and 2017 were identified. Children who needed restorative amalgam treatment of the mandibular molar were selected for this study. Finally, 120 preterm children participated in the study. The following variables were collected and analyzed: Anxiety during amalgam restoration based on the Faces version of the Modified Child Dental, Anxiety Scale questionnaire and General anxiety of the child based on the PAS questionnaire. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 22. The significance level was set at P<0.05.

Results: Demographic characteristics were not significantly different between the two groups. Despite the lack of differences in the statistical analysis of each question of the Modified Child Dental Anxiety Scale, there were differences between the two groups in the total scores. There were significant differences in obsessive-compulsive disorder between the two groups, but in the overall mean, there were no significant differences between the two groups. There was no significant relationship between anxiety during dental treatments and anxious mood in the full-term group. Conclusion: Based on the results, it can be concluded that there was a significant difference between the anxiety of preterm and full-term children, with higher levels of general anxiety in these children.