Do children’s previous dental experience and fear affect their perceived oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL)?

Table 1 Characteristics of the study population

Sociodemographic variables	N	%	Dental history and experience	N	%
Age (years) (n = 1,312)			Dental visit ever (n = 1,295)
11–12	653	50	Yes	1,158	89
13–14	659	50	No	137	11
Gender (n = 1,312)			Dental visit in the last 3 months (n = 1,271)
Male	719	55	Yes	414	33
Female	593	45	No	857	67
Birth order (n = 1,312)			Reason for most recent dental visit (n = 1,287)^a
First	302	23	Regular check-up	101	8
2-3	510	39	Pain	782	61
4+	500	38	Filling	464	36
Number of siblings (n = 1,312)			Esthetic	148	12
0–3	455	35	Other	119	9
4–5	476	36	Procedure at previous dental visit/s (n = 1,286)^a
6+	381	29	Examination	536	42
Family income (n = 1,312)			Local anesthesia	186	15
Low	119	9	Extraction	448	35
Middle	933	71	Filling	565	44
High	260	20	Prophylaxis	189	15
Mother’s education (n = 1,308)			Other	82	6
Less than secondary	334	26	Behavior during previous dental visit/s (n = 1,295)^b
Secondary	508	39	Good	744	57
University	466	36	Poor	444	34
Father’s education (n = 1,289)			I don’t know	107	8
Less than secondary	200	16	Fear (CFSS-DS) (n = 1,312)
Secondary	449	35	Fearful (score ≥32)	265	20
University	640	50	Non-fearful	1,047	80
General health variables			Untreated caries (n = 1,312)
Health problems (n = 1,269)			Yes	1,012	77
Yes	188	15	No	300	23
No	1,081	85	DMFT (mean (SD))	4.0 (3.2)
Hospitalization (n = 1,283)
Yes	308	24
No	975	76

Abbreviations: DMFT Decayed Missing and Filled Permanent Teeth; CFSS-DS Children’s Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale; SD Standard deviation.
^aAnswer categories are not mutually exclusive
^bReported by parents

ISSN: 1472-6831