Background: Dental fear seems to fluctuate, but concordance of changes in dental fears between parent/adolescent dyads has not been reported.
Aim: To study longitudinally the associations between adolescent and parental dental fears and their changes.
Design: Adolescents and parents reported their dental fear independently of each other when adolescents were between 11-12 and 15-16-year-olds. Eight hundred and seventeen eligible parent/adolescent dyads were included in the analyses. Dental fear was measured with a single question using five response alternatives. Associations between adolescent and parental dental fears and their changes were analysed using χ2 tests and correlation coefficients.
Results: Prevalence of dental fear remained rather similar during the study. There was a positive association between adolescent and parental dental fears in early adolescence (P < 0.001) but at middle adolescence only among parent/girl dyads (P = 0.007 for girls, P = 0.341 for boys). Changes in dental fear among parent/adolescent dyads did not correlate statistically significantly. Difference between girls' and boys' change in dental fear was statistically significant (P = 0.001). Dental fear increased more often among girls than among boys. Boys had stable low/no dental fear more often than girls did.
Conclusion: Adolescents' and parents' dental fears seemingly change independently of each other.
© 2017 BSPD, IAPD and John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.