Have you ever sat on that unbelievably uncomfortable dental chair, thinking how dental tools uncannily look like those torture devices of a thriller film you watched? If you have thoughts like these before scheduling your next dentist appointment, you may be one of the many people with dental fear or dental anxiety.
Knowing the difference between dental fear and dental anxiety
Dental fear or phobia is more serious than dental anxiety. The former is an awareness that fear is unreasonable yet uncontrollable, so people with this phobia continue to be panic-stricken and distressed when they need to make or attend their dentist appointments. Dental anxiety is a lesser form of dental phobia that is the feeling of unease and discomfort before any dental procedure is done.
Authors Ava Elizabeth Carter, Geoff Carter, Mark Boschen, Emad AlShwaimi, Roy George of “Pathways of fear and anxiety in dentistry: A review”, published in the World Journal of Clinical Cases, found possible causes of dental fear or anxiety. You may have caused yourself some trouble by learning about complications of dental procedures through that google search on root canals, thinking about negative and dangerous probabilities like your tongue being cut, having a friend share you their terrible in experiences with their dentist, are some of the reasons why you may have developed dental fear or anxiety.
Managing dental fear and anxiety
Though dental fear or anxiety have different levels of distress, these should both be managed to ensure comfort of the patient during dental check-ups and serious procedures. According to the same study by Carter, Carter, Boschen, and George, you can manage your fear or anxiety yourself through different ways.
You can help your dentist by opening about your fear or anxiety, so he or she can make you take a test which can assess the level of your dental fear or anxiety. Through this, your dentist may note how to go about his or her appointments with you.
A scarier route to take would be flooding or implosion. This involves pinpointing which part of the dental appointment that you fear and being repeatedly exposed to that fear until you are rid of that fear.
A calmer approach is relaxation techniques through deep-breathing and counting. This technique is also used by younger patients to control their fears.
If all else fails, you can request your dentist to assess you if they can qualify you to be sedated. If you live around the San Diego area, search for a San Diego dentist who offers sedation during appointments.