Dental anxiety is despite further medical advances a very common disorder in the general population. Nearly 80% of all adults in industrial countries feel discomfort before dental treatment, 20% state to be scared of dental treatment and 5% evade dental treatment fully [
1]. It has been stated as the fifth most common fear by Agras [
2]. The prevalence of dental anxiety can be seen across all age groups. Even young children are observed to have an avoidance behaviour towards dental treatment, which can be linked to parents influences [
3]. A study conducted by Hakeberg singled out 20–39 year old patients to be at the highest risk of having or obtaining anxiety before dental treatment [
4]. This agrees with the theory of aging reducing the presence of anxiety disorders and fears [
5]. The difficulty of treatment derives in the factors of onset of dental anxiety being different for every age group. Child-hood dental anxiety is strongly influenced by exogenous sources such as one or more members of the family, adolescent derived anxiety is characterized by trait-anxiety and adults by the presence of multiple fears and symptoms indicative of psychiatric problems [
6]. It is however vital not to confuse discomfort before treatment with a fully developed dental anxiety disorder. The fear of a certain situation is present in every individual and defines an interindividual stable, however interindividual varying trait to judge a certain known situation as threatening [
7]. Not every sign of anxiety during dental treatment describes an anxiety disorder. Sartory et al. [
8] conducted a study presenting sounds, hearable during a dental examination, to patients with diagnosed high dental anxiety and those without a diagnosis. Both groups judged dental sounds significantly more aversive than neutral sounds (bird twitter). A habitual fear of dental procedures begins before and not as a reaction after treatment [
9]. An extreme condition of dental anxiety can be described as a dental phobia. Phobias can be classified using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). A phobia is, according to the ICD-10 Chapter V, F40.0, a type of anxiety disorder. It is classified as an irrational fear of a defined, generally non-dangerous situation which is avoided fully or endured with great distress [
10]. It is fully separated from phobias of certain stimuli during dental treatment, such as injections [
11]. A possibility to differentiate between the stages of anxiety and phobia is the impact it has on the patients everyday routine and life. If it interferes with the persons social life, occupation and has an effect on normal functioning, it can be considered a specific (dental) phobia [
12]. Weiner and Sheehan [
13] were able to describe two different origins of dental anxiety, deriving from questionnaires specifically handed out about dental treatment. Exogenic dental anxiety is a conditioned phobia as a result of negative experiences during dental treatment. The endogenic dental anxiety is part of a generalised anxiety disorder with multiple phobias and psychiatric diagnoses. Dental anxiety is stressful for the patient as well as the dentist due to reduced cooperation, requirement of more time and an unpleasant environment [
14]. This may even lead to misdiagnosis and therefore mistreatment such as the analysis of tooth vitality [
15]. Patients avoiding treatment fully results in bad dental and periodontal health [
16]. These patients may visit a dental clinic only when pain begins to feel unbearable requiring complicated procedures such as endodontic treatment or tooth removal. This vicious circle denies a healthy patient-dentist relationship [
17]. In this study our aim was to identify patients with dental anxiety using the Dental Anxiety Scale [
18] and assessing their oral health using the DMF-T and DMF-S index and comparing these results with patients having no dental anxiety.