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

Table 3 Total OHRQoL (CPQ_11–14) scores by patterns of dental visits, behavior and fear among the study population

Dental history & experience	Mean	SD	Median	IQR	P-value^a
Dental visit ever
Yes	24.7	17.2	21	12–34	0.855
No	25.0	17.8	20	12–35
Dental visit in the last 3 months
Yes	24.3	16.9	21	12–34	0.674
No	24.7	17.3	20	11–34
Reason for most recent dental visit
Regular check-up
Yes	23.0	16.9	18	10–33	0.307
No	24.8	17.2	21	12–34
Pain
Yes	25.7	17.7	22	13–35	0.004
No	22.9	16.2	20	11–33
Filling
Yes	25.4	18.0	22	12–36	0.226
No	24.2	16.8	20	12–33
Esthetic
Yes	24.1	16.5	20	11–35	0.673
No	24.7	17.3	21	12–34
Procedure at previous dental visit/s
Examination
Yes	24.3	16.2	21	12–34	0.549
No	24.9	17.9	21	12–35
Local anesthesia
Yes	25.9	18.2	22	12–36	0.279
No	24.4	17.0	21	12–34
Extraction
Yes	26.1	18.3	22	13–36	0.027
No	23.9	16.6	20	12–33
Filling
Yes	25.9	18.3	22	12–37	0.016
No	23.6	16.3	20	12–32
Prophylaxis
Yes	23.1	16.4	20	11–33	0.181
No	24.9	17.3	21	12–35
Behavior during previous dental visit/s^b
Good	23.5	16.9	20	11–33	<0.001
Poor	26.9	17.9	23	14–37
Fear (CFSS-DS)
Fearful (score ≥32)	32.6	18.8	31	18–40	<0.001
Non-fearful	22.6	16.2	19	11–30
Untreated caries
Yes	24.8	17.3	21	12–34	0.648
No	24.2	16.8	20	12–35
DMFT (Pearson’s ρ)	0.03				0.356

Abbreviations: OHRQoL Oral health related quality of life; CPQ _11–14 Child Perceptions Questionnaire for 11- to 14-year-olds; SD Standard deviation; IQR Interquartile range; CFSS-DS Children’s Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale.
^aTwo-sample t-test was used
^bReported by parents

ISSN: 1472-6831