Dental phobias and anxiety are quite common among people leading them to postpone having dental treatment, until it reaches a dental emergency with extensive damage and cost. With time your dental phobia can even increase because of the guilt of missing the appointments and therefore the dread of how worse the problem can get.
So, what can you do to scale back your anxiety about dentistry?
Share Your Fears with Your Dentist
Inform the practice beforehand that you have a dental phobia. This permits the clinic to organize, to ensure they take special care to ease your stress and perhaps book an extended appointment for you. Have an open dialogue together with your dentist about your fears. Experienced dentists understand people have dental anxiety and they’ll ease your fears. You can even agree on an indication with your dentist, once you need to take a break during the procedure. This may offer you a way of control.
Identify Your Fears to Help Combat Them
There could also be many reasons why you fear dentistry, and it is helpful to identify what really bothers you about your visit. Is it the thought of the needle? Or you are worried about what your dentist may think about the condition of your mouth? Are you afraid of the sound and vibration of the drill?
If you’ll pinpoint the precise things that trigger your anxiety, inform your dentist about them. He may be able to offer you alternatives of at least try to use techniques to distract or ease you.
Listen to Music
We provide music headphones and overhead TVs where we stream favorite Netflix shows for our patients. This can be especially effective in drowning the sound of the drills utilized in the treatment and may be a great distraction for your mind.
Bring a Comfort Item
Kids bring along teddy bears or their parents that help them feel comfortable, and you can do the same. A stress ball or another item may be exactly what you need to relax. You can squeeze the ball to help you during your appointment.
You may also bring a friend. It can help understand you’ve got someone you trust sitting within the room and keeping you calm.
Try Meditation
Meditation is another potential way to pass through your dental anxiety and make yourself feel a bit calmer in the dental chair. Taking deep breaths can help relax and calm you
Go to Your Happy Place
Try visualizing yourself in your favorite place. Close your eyes, and picturize the one place in the world that made you feel happy and relaxed. Imagine the park, sunset at the beach or any of your treasured scenes in your mind and pretend you’re there. This visualization technique can seem overly simple, but it can reduce your dental fear to a great extent.
Sedation Options
When a stress ball, visualization, or mediation just doesn’t help with your dental anxiety, it’s time for you to think about sedation dentistry. With sedation dentistry using laughing gas or oral sedation, you’ll be relaxed enough so your dentist can do the required treatments and they can accomplish more in one appointment, to prevent having multiple appointments. But if you’re really the one that just cannot enter a dental clinic and it just freaks you out, then dental treatment under General anesthesia may be the only option
If you have a dental phobia or anxiety please Contact us at 800-DRJOY(37569) or click here and tell us about it and we can book you an appointment with one of our expert Dentists in Dr. Joy Dental Clinic who are trained in dealing with patients like you and can also offer you sedation dentistry . We have helped many patients like you to feel comfortable with our advanced technologies and procedures.
