Risk analysis of factors in clinical anxiety among undergraduate and postgraduate students in dentistry

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Ahmad, Paras^a | Chaudhary, Farooq Ahmad^b | Asif, Jawaad A.^c | AlSagob, Eman I.^d | Alkahtany, Mazen F.^e | Almadi, Khalid H.^e | AlMubarak, Abdulrahman^f | Abduljabbar, Tariq^g | Vohra, Fahim^{g; *}

Affiliations: [a] Oral Medicine Unit, School of Dental Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kota Bharu, Malaysia | [b] Department of Dental Public Health, School of Dental Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kota Bharu, Malaysia | [c] Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Dental Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kota Bharu, Malaysia | [d] Preventive Dental Sciences Department, Community Dentistry Division, College of Dentistry, Princess Nourahbint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | [e] Department of Restorative Dental Science, Division of Endodontics, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | [f] Department of Periodontics and Community Dentistry, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | [g] Department of Prosthetic Dental Science, College of Dentistry, King Saud University; Research Chair for Biological Research in Dental Health, College of Dentistry, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Correspondence: [*] Address for correspondence: Fahim Vohra. Professor, Department of Prosthetic Dental Science, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh 11545, Saudi Arabia. E-mail: fvohra@ksu.edu.sa.

Abstract: BACKGROUND:When anxiety is persistent among dental students, the consequence could be poor academic performance, ill health, lack of empathy, and exhaustion. OBJECTIVE:This study aimed to determine the level of anxiety along with anxiety-provoking factors among clinical dental students. METHODS:This study included dental undergraduate and postgraduate clinical students from a public university. A modified version of the self-administered Moss and McManus questionnaire, which consisted of 50 items, was utilized to evaluate the levels of anxiety. The results were analyzed using SPSS® version 24. The significance level was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS:Within 180 participants, 140 (77.77%) were undergraduate students, while 40 (22.22%) were postgraduate dental students. Overall, the top clinical anxiety-provoking factor included failure to pass the final examination, whereas the least clinical anxiety-provoking element was communicating with the opposite gender. Significant differences existed among male and female participants in the seven anxiety-provoking factors among the participants namely dealing with elderly patients, fail to pass finals, arresting post-extraction bleeding, patients asking difficult questions, fear of accidental pulp exposure, dealing with a child or non-cooperative patient, and fear of taking an incorrect impression. Postgraduate students showed lower anxiety scores in various clinical tasks as compared to undergraduate students. CONCLUSIONS:Postgraduate dental students share largely the same perspectives with undergraduate dental students on the clinical anxiety-provoking situations with slight variations. Being the future healthcare providers, dental students must learn techniques to help them manage their dental anxiety and fear as well as deal with anxiety related to treating patients

Keywords: Clinical anxiety, dental students, postgraduate, undergraduate

DOI: 10.3233/WOR-205093

Journal: Work, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 177-186, 2022