What Is Dental Anxiety and How Do You Stop It?
Regular dental visits are essential to maintain your teeth and gums in optimal shape. Unfortunately, you cannot find yourself at ease visiting your dentist because of the all too common fear of dental phobia. Approximately 36 percent of Americans are affected by dental anxiety regardless of age.
You might consider postponing dental visits because of the fear you have or neglect their visits altogether. However, if you want to overcome dental phobia, this article offers a few coping techniques to ease your concerns and take you back to the dentist’s chair.
Dental Phobia Coping and Treatment Options
People of all ages fear the dentist because of various reasons. For example, they may not like the probing in their mouths or bad experiences earlier with dentists. Fortunately, several coping mechanisms can help ease your fears to make you start searching for a friendly dentist in your locality for the upkeep of your dental health.
Symptoms Associated with Dental Phobia
It is challenging to determine the specific symptoms of dental phobia because you may experience some uneasiness with dental appointments and experience distressing symptoms before you visit your neighborhood-friendly dentist. For example, you may experience heart palpitations, panic attacks, hypotension, aggressive behavior, excessive sweating, crying, and feeling faint. These fears can make you put off your visit to the dentist to put at risk your dental health.
We intend to provide some mechanisms for coping with dental phobia to ensure your teeth, gums, and overall health benefit from regular visits to your dentist.
Coping Mechanisms for Dental Phobia
Communicate Your Anxiousness to a Dentist:
When you schedule your appointment with dental offices, do not hesitate to discuss your concerns with the dentist.
Do not be ashamed because dentists deal with such problems practically every day. The professionals can explain the steps you can take from start to finish while suggesting techniques that help you relax and feel more comfortable during your appointment.
Do not withhold asking questions because when you understand the procedure, it helps ease your fears.
Breathing Exercises: Your mind can relax and make you feel calmer if you indulge in deep breathing exercises. The exercises help reduce anxiety during dental visits. For example, you can close your eyes and inhale slowly from your nose, and exhale it with your mouth slowly after a few seconds. Repeating the exercise several times at your body relax.
Anxiety-Relieving Medications: Dentistry in Phoenix suggests anxiety-relieving medications to help relieve anxiety before dental appointments. They prescribe moderate anxiety, asking you to take the pills an hour before your visit.
Oral Conscious Sedation: Another technique to cope with anxiety during dental visits dentists recommend is oral conscious addition if you are affected by severe stress. To ease dental fears, oral conscious sedation involves taking sedatives a few hours before your appointment. The sedatives don’t make you sleep but maintain a level of consciousness for your safety and cooperation. However, they leave you entirely relaxed in your surroundings with little or no recollection of your procedure.
General Anesthesia: If you need extensive rehabilitation or rebuilding procedures of your mouth, dentists may offer you general anesthesia for severe anxiety. In such cases, dental procedures are handled in a hospital setting and need the experience of an anesthesiologist.
Dental Anxiety Affects Your Oral Health
If you are anxious about sitting in the dentist’s chair, it might encourage you to avoid visiting the dentist near me for essential treatments like exams and cleanings. Instead, you might consider delaying visits until it is too late to invite a host of oral health problems.
During six-monthly dental visits, the dentist nearby can detect cavities and issues like gum disease early that will need intensive treatments if left untreated. On the other hand, the lack of professional attention from dentists at regular intervals can leave you with problems like bleeding gums, loose teeth, and lousy breath.
Dental phobia affects everyone, including children and the elderly. However, you can comfortably cope with the anxiousness by visiting your dentist frequently. Consult the dentist nearby and discuss techniques to help you feel relaxed. For example, have someone accompany you to the dental office and watch TV during your appointment or listen to music using your AirPods while letting the dentist work in your mouth to optimize your oral health.
Dental anxiety is a fear of the dentist, which you can easily overcome by visiting Healthy Smiles, offering different coping mechanisms to relax you. Discuss your concerns with this dental office to forever overcome your fear of the dentist to benefit your oral health.