The aim of the present study was to clarify the relationship between the Dental Fear Survey (DFS)score in adulthood and the history of dental treatment in early childhood and to examine the factors that cause dental fear in adulthood. The subjects comprised 69 patients (16.7 years of mean age) of the pediatric dental clinic in Niigata University. We checked the dental experiences of all of the subjects based on their charts and analyzed the relationship between the dental history and the DFS score. The results were as follows.
1. Mean DFS scores of the present study came to 29.64 in the males and 37.54 in the females. They were statistically lower than the scores of the average Japanese population (44.09 in male and 46.24in female) (p< 0.01).
2. The patients with negative impressions concerning dental treatment (26 percent) had a higher level of dental fear than those of the others. Based on the results of factor analysis, no relationship was found between the impression and the dental experiences although a significant relationship between the impression concerning dental treatment and the DFS score was shown.
3. In the present study,45 patients out of all of the subjects had experienced physical immobilization before 5 years of age. Of these patients,20 had the experienced physical immobilization at 5 years (group (+)) and 25 had not experienced this at 5 years (group (-)). The mean DFS scores of group (+) and group (-) were 39.35 and 30.80 points respectively and there was a significant difference (p<0.05).
4. The distribution pattern of the mean scores of 20 items in the DFS questionnaire indicated that the patients of group (+) showed a higher level of fear in the items of proximate dental treatment than those of actual dental treatment. On the other hand, the tendency was not clear in the scores of group (-). We recognized, however, little difference in their dental experiences before 5 years of age between both groups. The findings suggest that patients who need physical immobilization at 5 years of age during dental treatment were inadaptable to dental treatment due to their character as regards quantity of dental fear. We should therefore take special care of them in dealing with their behavior.