Tüba Bayat, Koray Cömert
The impact of education on dental anxiety is not uniform but is statistically significantly modulated by gender. These findings emphasize the necessity of moving beyond standardized communication toward a customized, gender- and education-tailored chairside approach to optimize compliance during non-surgical periodontal therapy.
PURPOSE: Dental anxiety is a multidimensional factor that influences treatment compliance and periodontal outcomes. This investigation evaluated how gender, educational level, and their combined interaction relate to dental anxiety in a sample of patients receiving initial non-surgical periodontal therapy (Phase I), minimizing potential confounding effects from procedural differences.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 200 volunteers (100 females, 100 males) who received Phase I periodontal therapy. The required sample size was estimated using G*Power analysis to achieve a statistical power of 95%. Dental anxiety was assessed using the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS). Age homogeneity between genders was confirmed using the independent samples t-test. Data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA, the Games-Howell post-hoc test, and simple effects analysis. Effect sizes were determined via partial eta squared (partial η²).
RESULTS: No statistically significant difference in mean age was found between genders (p = 0.890). Two-way ANOVA revealed no statistically significant main effect for gender (p = 0.683) or educational level (p = 0.315). However, a statistically significant interaction effect with a large effect size was observed between gender and educational level (F(3,192) = 13.237; p 0.001; partial η2= 0.171). Simple effects analysis demonstrated that anxiety levels statistically significantly decreased as educational level increased in females (partial η² = 0.197), whereas in males, anxiety levels paradoxically increased with higher education (partial η² = 0.175).
CONCLUSION: The impact of education on dental anxiety is not uniform but is statistically significantly modulated by gender. These findings emphasize the necessity of moving beyond standardized communication toward a customized, gender- and education-tailored chairside approach to optimize compliance during non-surgical periodontal therapy.