• Luba AlMuhaish, AlHanoof AlArfaj, Maha AlGhannam, Hadeel AlMutiri, Sarah Abuhassan, Amal Asiri, and Muhammad Ashraf Nazir.
• College of Dentistry, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
• Patient Prefer Adher. 2022 Jan 1; 16: 342934393429-3439.

PurposeThe purpose of the study was to investigate dental anxiety (DA) screening and management practices among dental professionals in Saudi Arabia. The study also evaluated correlation between patients' self-reported DA and dentists' ratings of patients' DA.Participants And MethodsThis cross-sectional observational study included dentist/patient pairs (N = 279) from the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The dentists responded to a questionnaire about their DA screening and management practices and they evaluated patients' DA using the visual analogue scale (VAS). In addition, patients responded to the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) to measure their DA.ResultsAbout 15.1% of dentists reported using a published scale for screening DA in dental practice and Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale and Dental Fear Survey were their main scales. However, 69.2% reported directly asking their patients about DA. The use of DA management technique was reported by 89.6% of the dentists. Approximately half of the participants (53%) reported receiving DA training in their undergraduate dentistry programs and 65.2% expressed their interest in continuing education courses related to DA. In multiple logistic regression analysis, statistically significant factors associated with DA screening practice included gender (AOR = 0.46, P = 0.037), place of work (AOR = 3.68, P = 0.039), and interest in continuing education courses (AOR = 3.21, P = 0.015). Monthly income (AOR = 0.20, P = 0.029) and directly asking patient about DA (AOR = 6.15, P = 0.025) were significant factors associated with management of patients with DA. The study also showed a significant but weak correlation between DA evaluated by the dentists and DA reported by the patients (rho = 0.185, P = 0.002).ConclusionThe present study showed a low prevalence of DA screening practices among dentists. Dentists' rating of patients' DA weakly correlated with patients' self-reported DA.© 2022 AlMuhaish et al.

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