Olszewska Aneta, Rzymski Piotr
Department of Facial Malformation, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-812 Poznań, Poland.
Department of Environmental Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-806 Poznań, Poland.
J Clin Med. 2020 Aug 25;9(9):2751. doi: 10.3390/jcm9092751.
Dental fear and anxiety is a significant issue that affects pediatric patients and creates challenges in oral health management. Considering that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, along with its associated sanitary regime, social distancing measures and nationwide quarantines, could itself induce public fears, including in children, it is of great interest to explore whether this situation and the necessity of reorganizing dental care could potentially affect the emotional state of pediatric patients facing a need for urgent dental intervention. The present study assessed the emotional state of children ≤ seven years old ( = 25) requiring dental healthcare during a nationwide quarantine in Poland, as well as the anxiety levels of their caregivers. The Faces Anxiety Scale was adopted, and the evaluation was independently performed by the dentist, caregivers and children themselves. The level of anxiety in caregivers was also measured. As demonstrated, children requiring dental intervention during the nationwide quarantine did not reveal a significantly higher anxiety level as compared to the age- and indication-matched pre-pandemic control group ( = 20), regardless of whether their emotional state was evaluated by the dentist, caregivers, or by themselves. However, the share of children scoring the lowest anxiety level in all assessments was smaller in the pandemic group. Boys in the pandemic group had a higher anxiety level, as indicated by a caregiver assessment, and displayed a negative correlation with age in all three types of evaluation. Moreover, caregiver anxiety levels were higher in the pandemic group as compared to the pre-pandemic subset and revealed stronger correlations with the dental anxiety in children. The results suggest that the reorganization of oral healthcare under the pandemic scenario did not have a profound effect on children's dental anxiety. Nevertheless, findings in young boys highlight that they may be more vulnerable and require special care to mitigate their anxiety and decrease the risk of dentophobia in the future-these observations must be, however, treated with caution due to the small sample size and require further confirmation. Moreover, it is important to reassure caregivers of the safety of the dental visit during the pandemic to minimize the effect of their own anxiety on dental fears in children.
牙科恐惧和焦虑是一个严重问题，影响着儿科患者，并给口腔健康管理带来挑战。鉴于2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行及其相关的卫生制度、社交距离措施和全国范围的隔离本身可能引发公众恐惧，包括儿童的恐惧，探讨这种情况以及重新组织牙科护理的必要性是否可能影响需要紧急牙科干预的儿科患者的情绪状态，具有重要意义。本研究评估了波兰全国范围隔离期间需要牙科保健的7岁及以下儿童（n = 25）的情绪状态，以及他们照顾者的焦虑水平。采用面部焦虑量表，由牙医、照顾者和儿童自己独立进行评估。还测量了照顾者的焦虑水平。结果表明，与年龄和指征匹配的疫情前对照组（n = 20）相比，在全国范围隔离期间需要牙科干预的儿童，无论其情绪状态是由牙医、照顾者还是他们自己评估，均未显示出明显更高的焦虑水平。然而，在所有评估中焦虑水平最低的儿童比例在疫情组中较小。疫情组中的男孩经照顾者评估焦虑水平较高，并且在所有三种评估类型中均与年龄呈负相关。此外，与疫情前亚组相比，疫情组中照顾者的焦虑水平更高，并且与儿童的牙科焦虑相关性更强。结果表明，疫情情况下口腔保健的重新组织对儿童的牙科焦虑没有深远影响。然而，幼龄男孩的研究结果突出表明，他们可能更易受影响，需要特别护理以减轻他们的焦虑并降低未来患牙科恐惧症的风险——然而，由于样本量小，这些观察结果必须谨慎对待，需要进一步证实。此外，在疫情期间让照顾者放心牙科就诊的安全性很重要，以尽量减少他们自身焦虑对儿童牙科恐惧的影响。
