Evaluation of Child Anxiety Prior to Dental Care by Means of Modified Venham Picture Test, RMS Pictorial Scale and Facial Image Scale Tests

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate child anxiety prior to dental care; to compare the results obtained by applying different anxiety tests and to assess whether anxiety is related to age or gender, and to identify which test children find to be more attractive and easier to understand. Material and Methods: The research was performed with 30 children of both genders and age group of 4-9 years distributed into Group 1 = children aged 4, 5 and 6 years and Group 2 = children aged 7, 8 and 9 years. Modified Venham Picture Test (VPT), RMS Pictorial Scale (RMS-PS) and Facial Image Scale (FIS) were the anxiety evaluation tests used. For statistical analysis, the Shapiro Wilk Normality test, Spearman correlation and the Independent Proportions test were used. Results: Modified VPT identified 70% anxiety-free children, RMS-PS 90%, and FIS 87%. RMS-PS and FIS scores had moderate correlation (51%). Regarding age groups, no significant difference was found between proportions of group 1 and group 2. According to gender, in 11 girls, the modified VPT test identified 3 (27%) with some anxiety degree; RMS-PS test identified 1 (9%) and FIS test 2 (18%). In 19 boys, modified VPT test identified 6 (32%) with some anxiety degree; RMS-PS test identified 2 (11%) and the FIS test 2 (11%). The test that was the easiest to understand was the modified VPT (54%) and regarding attractiveness, modified VPT and RMS-PS presented similar results, 40% each. Conclusion: All three tests were able to identify anxiety prior to dental care. The evaluation of results showed that the more the children could identify themselves with the test, the more they found it to be easy and attractive.