Fear Of The Dentist: Four Common Causes And Their Coping Mechanisms
Posted on: 23 November 2015
Fear of the dentist is common, with those affected giving different reasons for it. It's unfortunate if your fear keeps you from getting dental treatment because your dental issues may worsen. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to eliminate these fears, or at least reduce them to manageable levels so you can take care of your oral health. Here are some of the common reasons people fear dental consultations, and how to overcome them:
Dental equipment
It's not easy to let someone poke around your mouth with things; it's even more difficult if the poking is to be done with strange looking instruments. Thus, it isn't surprising that many people fear going to the dentist because they fear the sharp instruments.
A good way of overcoming this fear is to familiarize yourself with the tools and instrument even before the dentist has to use them on you. You can read about them or even visit your dentist and ask to hold the instruments. Familiarity may ease some of your fear.
Pain
Many people assume that every dental treatment must be excruciatingly painful. If you hold the same assumption, then you aren't likely to go to the dentist even with a debilitating toothache. Reading about painful root canal treatments online (not all of which are factual) does not help matters.
It's true that some dental treatments, such as dental implants, may be painful, but there are also many other painless procedures. Even for the painful treatments, you aren't likely to feel much pain since your dentist will control it with different techniques, such as the use of anesthesia or nitrous oxide (laughing gas). There are even topical creams that numb your skin before you get pain injections; request for these if you fear injections too. Talk to your dentist about different pain management strategies; he or she probably has various solutions for your pain.
Loss of Control
Some people also fear the inevitable loss of control that come when they have been numbed on the dentist's chair. If your imagination is overactive, you may even fear that the dentist may start doing strange things to you, and you will have little say on the matter.
If this is your fear, then talk to your dentist and come up with different ways of letting you have some control while stretched out on the chair. For example, you may come up with a stop signal you can use whenever you feel uncomfortable or just need a break. Some people find that a simple signal, such as raising the hand, works well.
Talk to your dentist (like Jeffrey S. Thaller DMD) about your fears, even if they seem embarrassing, and you are likely to find solutions for them. An experienced dentist has probably dealt with similar patients before, and will know how to help you. While you may not eliminate your dental fears, there are many measures you can take to mitigate them and make going to the dentist easier.
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