Abstract
SUMMARY: This paper reports part of an investigation into the aetiology of child dental anxiety, and in particular considers the role of emotional and medical factors in this respect.One hundred dentally anxious children and 100 dentally non‐anxious children were seen and information about them obtained through a semi‐structured interview with the mother and by her completion of Rutter's Child Scale A Questionnaire.The results showed significant differences between the two groups of children in their emotional disorders and their medical experiences.