Dental anxiety and dental care - a comparison between Albania and Germany.

Background: The present study is the first in Albania on dental fear and dental anxiety and also in the field of psychosocial medicine. The purpose of this study was to find out whether there are differences in dental anxiety using the Dental Anxiety Scale, their level of psychological distress using the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 and the evaluation of oral health among Albanian and German patients.

Methods: This study was conducted in the period from December 2019 to July 2020, a sample of N = 263 patients (133 Germans, 130 Albanians) using the Dental Anxiety Scale questionnaires to determine anxiety before dental treatment and the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 to evaluate psychological distress.