Abstract:

Background and Aim:  Measurement of stress in children during dental procedures is one of the treatment concerns. The Modified Child Dental Anxiety Scale (MCDAS) is a questionnaire capable of appropriate assessment of dental anxiety in children. The present study aims to investigate the adequacy of the Persian translated version of the questionnaire for assessment of dental anxiety in Iranian children. 

Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, 260 children aged 9-12 were selected by non-randomized sampling method and they were subjected to the MCDAS, Corah’s Dental Anxiety Scale (CDAS), and Venham Picture test (VPT). The MCDAS was first translated into Persian, and then retranslated to English and it appeared to be reversible. After completing the questionnaires, internal consistency and correlation of these three questionnaires were measured using Cronbach’s alpha and Pearson test, respectively.

Results: The Cronbach’s alpha showed internal consistency of MCDAS, CDAS and VPT to be 0.8, 0.6 and 0.6, respectively. The consistency of MCDAS with CDAS and VPT was higher compared to CDAS and VPT (P<0.01).

Conclusion: The MCDAS seems to functions better than VPT and CDAS. Further studies are also recommended in this regard.