Correlating General Anxiety, Dental Anxiety and Emotions using Tom & Jerry Emotional scale- An Exploratory Study
Use of a Tom & Jerry Scale in Pediatric Dental Practice
Abstract
Background: Measures to record anxiety should be simple to use Therefore, picture tests are considered an appropriate choice.
Aim - To develop an emotion scale using pictures of famous cartoon characters ‘Tom and Jerry’ and corelate the association between general anxiety, dental anxiety and emotions of a child.
Materials & methods: 126 Pediatric dental patients visiting the Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry for the first time were selected for the study. For general anxiety parents of selected patients filled the PAS quesstionaires. Before the initiation of the study, the Tom and Jerry scale was developed and assessed for reliability and validity. This validated scale was used for the assessment of emotions and dental anxiety measured using Venham’s anxiety scale.
Statistical analysis-Descriptive statistics were performed and the association between parameters was evaluated using the Chi-square test. (Significance level- P-value < 0.05) .
Results: There was a significant association between the findings of the Tom and Jerry emotional scale with preschool anxiety scale(p=0.041*) and dental anxiety scale (p<0.001*) respectively.
Conclusion: The Tom and Jerry emotional scale can be used for the assessment of emotions among children and it also associates well with the general and dental anxiety.
Keywords: Anxiety, Pediatric Dentistry, Dental fear, Psychosocial factors, Practice management.
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