Dental Anxiety and the Paradox of Gender

Objectives: Dental anxiety has been considered as one of the several important obstacles for the patients of dental problems to seek timely treatment from dentists. Applying dental anxiety scales several researchers all over the world have found that the dental anxiety is almost universally more among women compared to men except a few cases. This paper therefore aims to critically reflect upon the dental anxiety research findings, in the light of feminist psychological perspective to comprehend the gender dimension of anxiety phenomenon. Methods: The paper reviews several research papers published in various journals.Findings: The findings of the dental anxiety research poses problem to feminists' point of view on gendered anxiety, as generic psychological difference between the genders is not valid. Hence one doubts the reliability of these findings and validity of the dental scales. However, if the association between dental anxiety and gender is genuine it calls for an explanation for this universal phenomenon of gender dental anxiety. If the anxiety is gendered then the question is whether gender is socially constructed or biologically determined? N. Sharon Sucharitha Gold"Dental Anxiety and the Paradox of Gender" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-1 | Issue-6 , October 2017, URL: http://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd2372.pdf http://www.ijtsrd.com/medicine/dentistry/2372/dental-anxiety-and-the-paradox-of-gender/n-sharon-sucharitha-gold