Evaluation of the influence of child-parent relationship on dental fear in children: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Dental fear and anxiety can complicate treatment delivery in children, while the contribution of broader child-parent relationship characteristics remains uncertain. AIMS: The study aimed to evaluate the association between child-parent relationship domains and dental fear among children aged 6-12 years. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted at a tertiary dental care center. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Children attending the Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry were recruited consecutively. Dental fear was assessed using the 17-item Modified Children's Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale, and child-parent relationship quality was evaluated using the 30-item Child-Parent Relationship Scale. Closeness, conflict, and dependency were analyzed as domain scores. Of 300 available records, 299 met the eligibility criteria for the primary analysis. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha, Spearman's rank correlation, Mann-Whitney U -test, and multiple linear regression were applied. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. RESULTS: The mean dental fear score was 33.61 ± 7.30. Tooth extraction, syringe-related procedures, and drilling produced the highest fear scores. Closeness ( rs = -0.036, P = 0.534), conflict ( rs =0.065, P = 0.260), and dependency ( rs = -0.004, P = 0.940) were not significantly associated with dental fear. Age and sex were also not associated with dental fear, and adjusted analysis yielded comparable findings. CONCLUSIONS: Dental fear was more closely related to procedure-specific concerns than to the child-parent relationship domains assessed in this study. Particular attention should be directed toward fear associated with needles, drilling, and anticipated extraction.