Tips to Overcome Anxiety and Dental Phobias

Tips to Overcome Anxiety and Dental Phobias

By admin November 16th

Maintaining a healthy mouth is an important part of your overall health, making regular dental exams are an essential step to protecting your health. This can be difficult, however; for people who struggle with fear or anxiety about visiting their dentist. Every year, approximately 40 million Americans will avoid going to their dentist for regular or necessary dental work due to anxiety or phobia. This only leads to further necessary dental care, leading to more visits, leading to more anxiety. If you experience these feelings about your dentist, you may feel trapped in a state of poor dental health, but you can work to overcome your fears and promote a healthier lifestyle for yourself.

Understand Your Fear

An important part of overcoming your dental fears and anxiety is understanding where this fear comes from. Is it out of an expectation that your dental work will be painful? Could it be that you’re worried about the skills of your dental professional, or the level of care you will receive? Do you have financial concerns preventing you from seeking treatment? For some people, it’s simply the interruption it causes to your daily routine or even the sterile, institutional feeling for the dental office itself. Whatever the cause of your fear may be, it is important that you pay attention to it and ask yourself why it makes you feel this way. This can help you to communicate your concerns or expectations, and in turn, help to find a solution that makes dental appointments more comfortable or manageable for you. A number of alternative treatment techniques have been developed in recent years to help patients with anxiety or dental phobia be more confident and comfortable in their dental treatments.

Watch What You Eat

And not just for the health of your teeth. Before your dental appointment avoid caffeine and other “stimulants” such as energy drinks, as well as sugars, as these can exacerbate your anxiety and cause irritation. Try and eat a balanced meal high in protein as this will help to produce a calming effect through your body.

Be Honest About Your Fears

When you get to your appointment be open about your fears. Sometimes, just knowing that someone knows how you feel and that they are there to help is all you need to feel more comfortable. It will also allow the staff to use different techniques or offer medication to help make the experience less stressful for you.

Focus on Deep Breathing

While it will be important for you to pay attention while the dentist is telling you about the state of your oral health, focusing on taking long, deep breaths at regular intervals can help to ease your mind and keep your attention on something other than the work that’s being done in your mouth. It also prevents you from holding your breath for extended periods, a common reaction in nervous or anxious patients, which decreases oxygen levels in your body and increases the feeling of panic.

Listen to Something to Occupy Your Mind

If you feel like focusing on your breathing isn’t enough to take your mind off your fears listening to music, a podcast, or audiobook may be enough to make you forget your worries long enough to get through your appointment. This will also help to block out noise, which can help patients whose fears may be linked to the sounds of drills and other tools.

Schedule Appointments for Less-Stressful Times

Scheduling your appointment for a time of day in which you won’t be stressed or be in a time crunch can help to make the experience feel like less of a dreadful necessity and more of a good choice to protect your health. Scheduling well in advance can help to make sure these kinds of times and dates are available and can help by giving you more time to prepare for your visit and plan financially.

Go With a Dentist You Can Trust

You may need to see more than one dental professional to take care of all your oral health needs, and this can make for an even more stressful experience than just one visit. The variation in setting between offices alone can be enough to cause distrust and anxiety in a patient. Here at Elko Dental Specialists, our practice combines the expertise of pediatric dentists, orthodontists, oral surgeons, periodontists, prosthodontists, and endodontists, all under one roof to provide comprehensive care for all your dental needs in one place. Call us at (775) 753-6118 or contact us online to see how our team of highly trained specialists can help you overcome your fears of dentistry, and help you to feel more in control of your dental health today.

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