Predicting Anxiety Among Patients In LPU Clinical Dispensary During Dental Treatment: Towards Student’s Clinical Performance Enhancement

The study aimed to determine the respondents’ profile in terms of age, gender, frequency of dental visit, and type of patient whether dental phobic or not; to determine the dental anxiety of patients in LPU dental dispensary; to identify the causes and severity of anxiety of the patients in LPU dental dispensary; to determine if there is a significant difference between the respondents’ demographic profile and their level of anxiety; and lastly, to propose a program that will help the patients cope with dental anxiety and a program that will enhance the students’ clinical performance. The study used the descriptive research design with the combination of content analysis of documents and related materials. Results showed that majority of the respondents belonged to age range of 14-18 years old range whereas for gender or sex, majority who avail of the clinic’s services are males. This is because women are more afraid than men in terms of dental problems. Further, younger people are more afraid than older ones. The weighted mean distribution of the level of anxiety showed that the level of anxiety of patients varies on moderately to not anxious. Feeling or experiencing pain during dental treatment ranked first followed by the fear or worry of not working the proposed treatment and thirdly, the dentist is in a hurry while treating also made the patients moderately anxious. Overall, the level of anxiety of patients is moderately anxious. Probing to asses gum disease, dislike the numb feeling and injection were the top three causes of dental anxiety. Only type of patient shows significant difference, thus the null hypothesis of no significant difference on the level of anxiety when grouped according to profile variables is rejected. This means that the level of anxiety of both phobic and not phobic differs.