Fear frequently interferes with dental treatment procedures, producing delays and poor technical quality results. Patients exhibit avoidance and escape behaviors that may be related to aversive childhood experiences in dental treatment situations. The aim of this study was to identify the most frequent children's fears, including dental ones, using an adaptation of the FSSC-R. This instrument was used to assess 549 children divided in three groups: (G1) private school children, (G2) public school children and (G3) public school children who were surveyed during dental treatment. Results indicated higher dental fear scores for females when compared with male children. Considering all groups studied, "injection" was the 5th higher fear for the group G3, 8th for the group G1 and 14th for the group G2. Family relationship items such as "parents fighting", "parents yelling at you", "hearing my parents argue", were considered frequent fears, suggesting that family conflicts may contribute to children's emotional problems.
dental fear; pediatric dentistry; children; FSSC-R
