Table 4.
Mean dental fear scores in relation to caries experience in permanent teeth
| Caries severity | Total | F Value (P value) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N (%) | Mean (SD) | 95% CI | ||
| No caries | 232 (15.2) | 27.91 (10.4a) | 26.6–29.3 | 10.23‡ (< 0.001*) |
| Low caries | 330 (21.7) | 27.36 (9.3ab) | 26.3–28.4 | |
| Moderate caries | 418 (27.5) | 25.96 (9.3bc) | 25.1–26.9 | |
| Severe caries | 542 (35.6) | 24.51 (8.6c) | 23.8–25.2 | |
| Total | 1522 (100) | 26.05 (9.3) | 25.6–26.5 | |
N total number of children, SD standard deviation, CI confidence interval
*Statistically significant (P < 0.05), ‡Analysis of variance
Means sharing the same alphabetical letter superscripts are not significantly different from each other (post-hoc, P ≥ 0.05)
Means that have different alphabetical letter superscripts are significantly different from each other (post-hoc, P < 0.05)
No caries DMFT = zero, low caries < 2.7, moderate caries ≥2.7 to ≤4.4, severe caries≥4.5