Determining Cut-Off Points for the Dental Fear Survey

Table 1

Total DFS scores for participants grouped according to response to the direct question “Are you fearful of going to the dentist?” ().

Groups of fear	DFS total scores
		Minimum	Maximum	Median	Mean (SD)
Not fearful	895	20.0	63.0	27.0	29.4 (8.0)
A little fearful	312	24.0	76.0	45.0	45.2 (10.4)
Very fearful	27	45.0	100.0	76.0	75.0 (12.3)
Extremely fearful	18	48.0	89.0	62.0	63.5 (12.2)

Kruskal-Wallis test ().
SD = Standard Deviation.
Conclusion = not fearful < a little fearful < highly fearful (very fearful and extremely fearful).