Psychometric Evaluation of the Turkish Version of the Dental Fear Survey
INTERNATIONAL DENTAL JOURNAL, cilt.76, sa.5, ss.1-12, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 76 Sayı: 5
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.identj.2026.109774
- Dergi Adı: INTERNATIONAL DENTAL JOURNAL
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Natural Science Collection (ProQuest), Biological Science Database (ProQuest), Biomedical Reference Collection: Corporate Edition (EBSCO), Health Research Premium Collection (ProQuest), Scopus, Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), CINAHL, Directory of Open Access Journals
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1-12
- Akdeniz Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Introduction and aims
Dental fear is an important barrier to dental attendance and may affect oral health behaviours, treatment acceptance and patient-centred care. The Dental Fear Survey (DFS) is a widely used multidimensional instrument. Although the DFS has previously been used in Turkish populations, comprehensive psychometric evidence for a systematically adapted Turkish version in adult clinical patients has remained limited. This study aimed to translate and culturally adapt the DFS into Turkish and evaluate its psychometric properties.
Methods
The DFS was translated and culturally adapted following established guidelines. The prefinal version was pilot-tested in 30 adult dental patients, and content validity was evaluated by 10 experts. The main evaluation included 502 adult dental patients, divided into independent EFA (n = 253) and CFA (n = 249) subsamples. Internal consistency, 2-week test–retest reliability in 50 patients and convergent validity with the Turkish Modified Dental Anxiety Scale were assessed.
Results
EFA suggested a meaningful 3-factor structure consisting of dental avoidance and anticipatory anxiety, physiological arousal and fear of specific dental stimuli and procedures, explaining 66.99% of the variance. CFA showed improved but limited fit after theoretically justified modifications; therefore, the 3-factor structure was interpreted cautiously. Internal consistency was excellent (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.95 for the total scale; 0.81-0.95 for subscales). Test–retest reliability was also excellent (ICC = 0.98 for the total score; 0.96-0.98 for subscales). The total DFS score correlated strongly with the MDAS score (r = 0.83, P < .001).
Conclusion
The Turkish DFS demonstrated favourable psychometric properties, particularly for internal consistency, temporal stability and convergent validity. Its multidimensional structure was meaningful, although structural validity should be interpreted cautiously and confirmed in independent samples.
Clinical relevance
The Turkish DFS may facilitate clinicians identify components of dental fear and support patient communication and assessment in Turkish-speaking adults.