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A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care

Background Alexithymia is a personality trait involving difficulties in emotional regulation (difficulties in identifying feelings, difficulties in describing feelings, and externally oriented thinking). It has a negative impact on health as it evokes poor personal hygiene, poor nutrition, and unhea...

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Autores principales: Suresh, Sneha, Singh Baghel, Ranjita, Gautam, Abhishek, Kumar, Anant, Sundar, Deep, Kriti, Suman
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10493171/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37700995
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.43341
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author Suresh, Sneha
Singh Baghel, Ranjita
Gautam, Abhishek
Kumar, Anant
Sundar, Deep
Kriti, Suman
author_facet Suresh, Sneha
Singh Baghel, Ranjita
Gautam, Abhishek
Kumar, Anant
Sundar, Deep
Kriti, Suman
author_sort Suresh, Sneha
collection PubMed
description Background Alexithymia is a personality trait involving difficulties in emotional regulation (difficulties in identifying feelings, difficulties in describing feelings, and externally oriented thinking). It has a negative impact on health as it evokes poor personal hygiene, poor nutrition, and unhealthy behaviors in affected subjects. Identifying alexithymia in the dental setup is vital as it can compromise the patient-dentist relationship, especially in subjects neglecting oral hygiene. Aims The present study aimed to establish an association between alexithymia and dental neglect among adult subjects seeking dental care by using Dental Neglect Scale (DNS), and alexithymia was assessed on the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Methods The present cross-sectional survey study included adult subjects of age 20 years or more. For all included participants, a structured questionnaire was given to assess dental neglect on demographic profile, six items of the DNS, and alexithymia was assessed on the 20-item TAS-20. The collected data were analyzed using a Chi-square test keeping significance at the p-value of <0.05. Results In 534 adult subjects, females had high scores for both TAS-20 and DNS along with their related factors. With higher education and increasing age, a significant increase in the mean TAS-20 scores and mean DNS scores was seen in the study participants (high mean DNS scores in females (19.55±3.98) compared to male subjects 19.36±4.34). TAS-20 scores were higher in females (59.31±10.78), factor 1 (DIF) (19.54±5.54), factor 2 (DDF) (15.46±4.05), and factor 3 (EOT) (24.34±4.64). Conclusion The present study, considering its limitations, concludes that there is no association between dental neglect and alexithymia in adult subjects seeking dental care. However, higher DNS and TAS-20 scores are seen in females showing them have difficult descriptions and identification of feelings in dental set-up increasing dental neglect among them.
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spelling pubmed-104931712023-09-11 A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care Suresh, Sneha Singh Baghel, Ranjita Gautam, Abhishek Kumar, Anant Sundar, Deep Kriti, Suman Cureus Public Health Background Alexithymia is a personality trait involving difficulties in emotional regulation (difficulties in identifying feelings, difficulties in describing feelings, and externally oriented thinking). It has a negative impact on health as it evokes poor personal hygiene, poor nutrition, and unhealthy behaviors in affected subjects. Identifying alexithymia in the dental setup is vital as it can compromise the patient-dentist relationship, especially in subjects neglecting oral hygiene. Aims The present study aimed to establish an association between alexithymia and dental neglect among adult subjects seeking dental care by using Dental Neglect Scale (DNS), and alexithymia was assessed on the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Methods The present cross-sectional survey study included adult subjects of age 20 years or more. For all included participants, a structured questionnaire was given to assess dental neglect on demographic profile, six items of the DNS, and alexithymia was assessed on the 20-item TAS-20. The collected data were analyzed using a Chi-square test keeping significance at the p-value of <0.05. Results In 534 adult subjects, females had high scores for both TAS-20 and DNS along with their related factors. With higher education and increasing age, a significant increase in the mean TAS-20 scores and mean DNS scores was seen in the study participants (high mean DNS scores in females (19.55±3.98) compared to male subjects 19.36±4.34). TAS-20 scores were higher in females (59.31±10.78), factor 1 (DIF) (19.54±5.54), factor 2 (DDF) (15.46±4.05), and factor 3 (EOT) (24.34±4.64). Conclusion The present study, considering its limitations, concludes that there is no association between dental neglect and alexithymia in adult subjects seeking dental care. However, higher DNS and TAS-20 scores are seen in females showing them have difficult descriptions and identification of feelings in dental set-up increasing dental neglect among them. Cureus 2023-08-11 /pmc/articles/PMC10493171/ /pubmed/37700995 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.43341 Text en Copyright © 2023, Suresh et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Public Health
Suresh, Sneha
Singh Baghel, Ranjita
Gautam, Abhishek
Kumar, Anant
Sundar, Deep
Kriti, Suman
A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care
title A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care
title_full A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care
title_fullStr A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care
title_full_unstemmed A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care
title_short A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care
title_sort cross-sectional study to analyze the correlation between alexithymia and dental neglect in persons pursuing dental care
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10493171/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37700995
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.43341
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