تلخیص
Objective: To assess the prevalence and level of dental anxiety in patients reporting to the Outpatient Department in Lahore Medical and Dental College. Study Design: ACross Sectional Comparative Study.Place and Duration of Study: The Outpatient Department of Lahore Medical and Dental Collegeduring the months of August and September 2019.Materials and Methods: A total of300 patients were assessed for dental anxiety utilizing Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale. The qualitative variables were described as frequencies and percentages and the quantitative variables were expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Data was subjected to descriptive statistical analysis and significance testing between the variables was done using Independent samples T ttest and Analysis of variance (Anova). Level of significance was set at 0.05. Results: Dental anxiety was prevalent in 29.7% patients, mostly children with a mean dental anxiety score of 7.23 (±3.78). The incidence of dental anxiety among the patients was 70.3% non-anxious, 15.3 % moderate anxiety, 6.7 % high anxiety and 7.7 % severe anxiety. Females recorded a higher mean Dental Anxiety Score, 7.89 (±4.07) as compared to males 6.44 (±3.39). There was a highly significant (p<0.05) difference in Dental Anxiety scores based on age, gender, and past dental experiences. Conclusion: TheDental anxiety levels reported in the study population were low and the high level of anxiety was seen mostly in children.This highlights the importance of developing a comfortable dentist-patient relationship to help anxious patients and support them during the course of the treatment