As a General Dentist, We Can Help You to Overcome Dental Anxiety

Being a general dentist places us in a unique position of being able to educate, create a sense of trust, and help banish some of the fears people have when visiting a dentist. As such, we often talk about things that other professionals may shy away from, like fear. The truth is, fear of dentists is wide reaching and seen in every country on the planet. In fact, we guarantee that wherever you find a professional general dentist, the chances are that you will find people who will avoid them professionally. Right here in America, there is a large segment of the population, 26 percent to be exact, that completely avoids visiting the dentist. They do this despite knowing that visiting the general dentist on a regular basis would give them healthier teeth and improved oral health. Their major reason for avoiding the dentist is fear. For those who do visit the dentist on a semi-regular basis, even they admit to having a level of anxiety. Between 9 percent and 20 percent of dental patients admit to having some level of stress, ranging from mild anxiety to panic attacks, when they have to visit the dentist for a procedure. Often, people are more afraid when they have not been for a while and are faced with the uncertainty of the condition of their teeth and what remedies might be necessary in order to restore their teeth to perfect condition. We have found that the greatest tools a general dentist has in fighting fear is you and also getting you to understand that the only thing you need to fear is the fear itself.

Fighting fear at the general dentist

Three things you can do to reduce, if not mitigate altogether, your fear of dental visits are as follows. First, you need to identify and isolate what it is that causes you so much consternation. Fear that has not been identified tends to take on a much larger persona than it actually has, making you afraid of the general dentist instead of what you are really afraid of, like needles or loss of control. Once we have isolated what you are afraid of, we can work through or around this fear to ensure your comfort.

The second thing you can do is to educate yourself. There is no worse enemy to fear than knowledge, so the more you know about what your general dentist does, the tools we use to do it, and the limitless safety precautions we take to ensure your wellbeing and comfort, the less likely you are to be afraid to visit the dentist. Finally, regularly scheduled visits to the general dentist will go a long way to removing your fear of the dentist. We ask our patients, especially those with profound fears, to plan on having a regularly scheduled cleaning and examination once every six months. This creates a sense of trust between you and your dentist, built over minor and quick procedures. It also creates a sense of familiarity between you and the clinic and the equipment, which we can build upon should you find yourself needing a more stressful procedure.

We can also discuss options for medication to prevent any discomfort.