How To Get Over Your Dental Fears

Many people are willing to tolerate the torture of dental pain than seeing a dentist; this is called dental fear. Dental fear -also known as dental anxiety- is common worldwide, and if neglected, it can lead to devastating effects on the person’s oral health. In the following article, we will explain in detail the nature of dental fear and tips on how to successfully overcome it. 

The concept of dental fear

Dental fear is a strong emotional feeling against dentists, where an individual would despise the idea of visiting a dental clinic or despise specific parts of their appointment, such as the sound of the drilling handpiece or seeing the anesthetic needle. 

This type of anxiety can develop due to various reasons, mainly having encountered a traumatic dental experience in the past, thinking all visits would bring a similar trauma. Another common reason is when a patient would fear being judged by the dental practitioners and their assistants regarding their existing dental problem. 

Moreover, fearing a dentist would prevent people from receiving optimal dental care. If left untreated, it would worsen the already existing dental problem, leading to serious consequences, thus managing such an issue is of the utmost importance. 

How to overcome your fear from the dentists?

The following are some tips you can take on to help make you less anxious while visiting a dental clinic.

• Choosing a suitable dentist: search for a clinic that specializes in treating anxious patients, they would usually offer a soothing clinical environment with a team of experienced dentists.
• Explain your condition: when making a booking; state that you’re feeling anxious about your appointments. The clinic would usually schedule you for an early appointment with a longer slot to make sure your dental experience goes as smoothly as possible.
• Take a trusted person with you: most dentists would not mind if a member of your family or a friend accompanies you during your treatment for support and help make you go through it.
• Ask for breaks: while receiving dental treatment. Sitting on the dental chair for a long period could further contribute to your stress thus getting breaks would help make you less anxious. Another similar trick is to agree with your dentist to use stop signals, so your dentist would stop working whenever your feel uncomfortable and want a break to refresh.
• Sedation: is recommended for patients who exhibit high levels of anxiety. The dentist would offer you various methods depending on the level of sedation required. The sedation methods range from nitrous oxide gas sedation to oral and intravenous sedation.
• Seek psychological help: dental anxiety is like any other anxiety, to manage such a condition you need to treat the roots of this fear once and for all. 
  

The bottom line

Dental fear is a challenging matter and could affect your lifestyle in various aspects; therefore, you should not ignore it. There are many steps that you could follow which would help you process and manage your fear, such as choosing the right clinic with experienced dental practitioners.