Stress levels in patients visiting for dental treatment: a cross-sectional hospital-based study

BackgroundPotentially stressful life events are thought to increase risk for a given disease. In turn, perception of stress might influence the pathogenesis of physical disease by causing negative affective states which, then, exert direct effects on the physiological processes of the individual that influence the predisposing and/or, risk factors for a given disease process.ObjectiveTo assess stress levels in patients coming for dental treatment using perceived stress scale.Patients and methodsThe present cross-sectional study consisted of 598 individuals randomly selected from the Outpatient Department aged 18 years and above over a period of 6 months, while perceived stress scale was used to measure perception of stress.ResultsIn the present study, data collected revealed that unskilled individuals (29.4%) sought dental treatment more than other categories of occupational groups, while a correlation between occupation and the levels of stress revealed that stress levels were considerably lower in professionals with the results being highly significant, P value being 0.002.ConclusionFrom the present study, it could be concluded that in most of the cases, stress and dental problems were closely linked with one other with one aggravating the other.