Do Parental and Children's Dental Anxiety Affect Childhood DentalCaries?

Background: Dental anxiety is an unpleasant reaction to fear or stress related to the dental environment and can be observedin both parents and children as dental patients. Despite several studies challenging the significance of parental anxiety ininfluencing a child's response to dental treatment, conflicting results have emerged regarding the impact of both parental andchildren's anxiety on the development of dental caries.Objectives: This study aimed to explore the association between parental and children's dental anxiety and the occurrence ofdental caries in children.Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 7 - 12-year-old students and their parents in schools of Rasht, Iran, utilized theModified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) for parents and the Modified Child Dental Anxiety Scale (MCDAS) questionnaire forchildren. Participants were chosen through a multistage sampling process. A trained dentist assessed children's dental cariesusing the DMFT/dmft (decayed, missing, and filled teeth) Index. The data were analyzed using the chi-square test and linearregression.Results: The study included 275 parents and an equal number of children, with a mean child age of 9.32 +/- 1.85 years. Thefindings indicated a significant relationship between maternal dental anxiety and DMFT + dmft scores in boys (P = 0.049). Thestudy revealed that the number of teeth with caries experience (P = 0.023), child's sex (P = 0.007), history of dental clinic visits (P= 0.045), and maternal dental anxiety (P = 0.043) significantly influenced the child's dental anxiety.Conclusions: Children with anxious parents showed lower DMFT/dmft values, suggesting increased attention to their dentalhealth. The study highlights the impact of parental dental anxiety on children's oral well-being and emphasizes the need forcomprehensive strategies to address dental anxiety in both parents and children