Identificación del nivel de ansiedad durante el tratamiento dental en niños, Clínica Odontología UCSG.

Abstract

Introduction: Pediatric dental anxiety is a critical challenge in contemporary pediatric dentistry, acting as a barrier to timely care and leading to more invasive emergency treatments. This psychological phenomenon is multifactorial, conditioned by age, temperament, clinical familiarity, and aversive sensory stimuli. Objective: To identify anxiety levels during dental treatment in children at the Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil (UCSG) dental clinic during academic cycle A-2026. Materials and methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive, and observational study was conducted on a representative sample of 120 pediatric patients (aged 3 to 12) and their legal guardians. A structured Likert-scale questionnaire, the Facial Image Scale (FIS), and the Frankl Behavioral Rating Scale were used. Inferential data analysis was performed in SPSS V26 using Pearson's Chi-square test. Results: A high prevalence of satisfactory clinical cooperation was recorded, with 77.5% of the children demonstrated positive or definitely positive clinical cooperation. The syringe (needle/injection) was the primary stressor, eliciting severe fear in 60.0% of cases; conversely, the turbine (“little drill”) provoked little or very little fear in 69.2%. Cooperation was significantly associated (p < 0.001) with age, previous experience, prior explanation of the treatment, and baseline temperament. Biological gender showed no differences regarding behavior (p = 0.384). Conclusions: Transoperative behavior and anxiety levels in pediatric patients at UCSG are multifactorial determined by younger age, lack of positive prior experiences, baseline temperament, and invasive stimuli like local anesthesia, occurring universally regardless of biological gender.