Children's Anxiety on Dental Treatment: Literature Review

Abstract

Background: Dental anxiety is a normal reaction in children. Anxiety has a worldwide prevalence up
to 15% of the general population. It is stated that fear and anxiousness have the prevalence of 10%
and 20%, very high at an early age. Children with the age of 6-12 years old experience the period of
transition, from primary teeth to permanent teeth. At this time, children make a lot of dental visits
for getting treatments, such as preventive treatments like pit and fissure sealant, scaling, as well as
extraction procedure. Dental anxiety affects children's behaviour during the treatment. It can be
caused by several factors such as age, gender, and the dental procedure that children experience.
Objectives: This study was done to find out children's anxiety during dental treatment. Method:
Literature review was applied in conducting this study, with the implementation of narrative review
approach by using secondary data that was found in PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and
Ebsco databases. Results: Based on the study on 12 articles, it showed that children's anxiety
regarding dental treatment that was done toward children aged 6-12 years old was mostly
experienced by children with younger age of 6-8 years old, and their anxiety would decrease as they
got older. Girls also showed a higher level of anxiety than boys, while the treatment that caused this
anxiety is the injection. Conclusion: Dental treatments cause children's anxiety.

Keywords: anxiety, dental anxiety, children, dental, dental treatment.