Dental fears are extremely common, and stop many people from visiting the dentist even when they are experiencing uncomfortable symptoms. Whether you live in fear of the numbing shot before a procedure, or find yourself focusing on dental fears related to the loss of control that you feel when your fate is in the hands of the dentist, the anxiety that you feel is treatable.
1) Talk to your dentist
If you are going to overcome dental fears, you need to be able to talk about them with your dentist. If you don’t feel like you can trust or relate to your current dentist, find one who meshes with your personality in a better way. Discuss your dental fears until there is nothing left to say about them, and find out the reassuring truth behind them. A good dentist will be patient with you and will be able to explain procedures in terms that you understand.
2) Ask for further help
If mere discussions with your dentist don’t allay your dental fears, don’t be too embarrassed to ask for help. There are anxiety treatments that may be suitable for you, and your dentist will be able to tell you all about their dental office’s particular treatments for dental fears.
3) Strategize with your dentist
If the aforementioned loss of control is one of your biggest dental fears, you can take back some of the control by making a plan with your dentist. For example, a common agreement between dentists and patients with dental fears is that you can raise your hand if you want the dentist to immediately be alerted to any increase in pain, discomfort or panic that you feel.
4) Make sure your dentist keeps you in the loop
Even once you have found out more information about your dental fears, actually going though a procedure can bring these dental fears back to the forefront of your mind as you struggle to remember what will happen next. Your dentist can help you with this by explaining each step of the necessary procedure, making sure it all makes sense to you.