Introduction:

Dental anxiety can strongly affect oral health, modifying the prognosis and treatment’s adherence. The level of dental anxiety has to be considered when proposing a treatment plan. The aim of this study is to measure the psychometric properties of the Dental Anxiety Scale in the Spanish version, applied to adults in primary health institutions of the Metropolitan Region, Chile

Methods:

169 adults were recruited. To determine content validity, the Delphi method was used; the confirmatory factor analysis was used to demonstrate the construct validity. Reliability was measured in terms of internal consistency with the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient.

Results:

The experts did not modify the Spanish version of DAS. The factorial analysis confirmed that there was a single factor that accounted for 65,44% of variance. A 0,882 Cronbach’s alfa is considered as good reliability.

Conclusion:

Dental Anxiety Scale presents an appropriate construct and content validity, and a good reliability. It is a proper instrument to be used in adults in primary health care centers in the Metropolitan Region.

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