Abstract
Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the factors that prevent dental patients from visiting the dental clinic. Methods: From June 22, 2020 to July 17, 2020, among patients 10 years or older who had visited the dental clinic, 314 individuals who agreed to the study were asked to fill out a self-administered questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the SPSS Statistics 22.0 program, and the significance level was set at 0.05. Results: The dental avoidance factors according to the general characteristics were high in women and housewives, and among the dental-related characteristics, the most common reason for visiting the dental clinic was experiencing pain. The factors influencing anxiety were fear, environment, stimulus, age, and exercise, and the factors influencing the fear were anxiety, stimulus, subjective oral health status, education, and exercise. The factors influencing the stimulus were environmental factors, fear, anxiety, and age, and the factors that influenced environmental factors were stimulus and anxiety. Conclusions: There is a need to develop measures and policies to overcome fear of dental procedures, such as developing a dental experience program and allowing patients to experience dental fear and anxiety in advance.
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