Assessing agreement between parents and their 6-12 years old children on dental fear rating using children’s fear survey schedule—dental subscale

Background: It is well known that dental fear is a common phenomenon among children and adolescents. CFSS-DS is the most widely used scale for measuring dental fear in children. Objectives: To investigate the agreement between parental rating of dental fear and self-rating of their 6-12-year-old children and to assess the relation of dental fear with child’s age and gender. Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken among primary school children between 6 and 12 years old, in Qassim region, Saudi Arabia. A total number of 536 child/mother pairs were enrolled. The child version of CFSS-DS was filled by students in school setting. While, the parental version of the CFSS-DS was filled at home by child’s mother on behalf of them. Results: The mean dental anxiety score reported by the children was (29.88 ± 12.49), whereas the parents’ assessment of their children was (27.31± 7.77), (P= 0. 001). The intraclass correlation coefficient between the child and parental version of CFSS-DS was 0.25. The mean dental fear score reported by males was (27.21 ± 11.99) and by females (31.65 ± 1349), (P=0.001). Parents of low anxious children overestimated their children’s fear, while parents of high anxious children underestimated their children's fear. The most fearful dental items reported by the children and their parents were injections, the dentist drilling and choking. Conclusions: Poor agreement in dental fear assessment between parents and their 6-12-years-old children, with a tendency of parents to underestimate their children dental fear. Female children scored significantly higher dental fear than males.