Evaluation of anxiety in a group of adult patients attending a dental surgery unit.

Background: Dental visits can cause anxiety and fear in some patients. Dental anxiety is considered a state of apprehension tied to a sensation of a loss of control and linked to a feeling that something "terrible" might happen during the dental treatment, this generates discomfort in the patient promoting that some of them avoid the dental visit, which in turns delays seeking treatment thus worsening the prognosis of oral diseases, for this reason the objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of anxiety among individuals attending an initial consultation at a dental surgery unit.

Methods: The selection of patients was performed during the initial consultation carried out in the Medicine, Surgery and Oral Implantology unit and the following data was registered: hemodynamic parameters (blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen saturation), weight, pain associated to the patient's reason for consultation, past dental experience, also State-Trait Anxiety Inventory/State-scale (STAI-S) and the modified dental anxiety scale (MDAS) questionnaire was applied to determine the level of anxiety.