Nervous About Your Dental Appointment?

If you suffer from treatment anxiety, you are not alone. Don’t worry, Cygnet Dental can help

Most people have at least one area in their life that causes a degree of anxiety. Sometimes this can be due to unfortunate circumstances regarding your health and is entirely understandable. There are also instances where people have anxiety about things which aren’t really logical, and in some cases, may seem rather extreme, such as a fear of cheese (Turophobia in case you were wondering). The two most common phobias though are flying and visiting a dentist. We won’t discuss flying although some of the information here may be useful. Our aim is to enable people to overcome their fears and ensure that they receive regular dental care at our Wickford clinic.

There are a number of things that might cause dental anxiety. Perhaps you have had a bad experience in the past, maybe as a young child, and have not yet managed to overcome it? For some people it is the fear of needles and for others, the fear that they will be in pain during the procedure. Let us take a look at a few of these, along with information that we think may help you.

Previous bad experiences

First of all, no one is immune to anxieties so please don’t feel bad about it. A bad experience in the past is a common reason why people avoid dentists but this often occurred a long time ago and it is quite possible that it wasn’t actually as bad as your memory indicates. Even if it was a very unpleasant experience, it is worth remembering that technology has advanced in the past decade or two and the equipment now available at the Cygnet Dental Practice enables our experienced dentists to carry out procedures more accurately and with less stress for the patient. Dentists are also now trained in how to look after nervous patients; after all, we do see quite a few.

Needles and fear of pain

First of all, it is a fact that if you have tooth decay, you are almost certainly going to end up in a lot of pain anyway if you don’t have it treated. The infection may even reach the root canals and be very painful indeed. Filling a cavity is almost certainly going to be very painful without a local anaesthetic and if you were allowed to go ahead without it, we guarantee you would change your mind very quickly.

Whilst we understand that some people don’t like needles, and indeed find the injection for a local anaesthetic uncomfortable, the reality is that it isn’t actually the needle going into the gum that is painful; you would barely feel this. What causes the temporary discomfort is the cold anaesthetic meeting the warm blood stream. This only lasts for a few seconds and the area will soon become numb so that we can carry out any treatment that is needed.

The procedure

There is a strong theory that one of the reasons why dental treatment is the cause of such a high level of anxiety is because it takes place next to the part of the body where the main senses, i.e. sight, sound and smell, are located. We know that receiving treatment isn’t fun, but it is necessary for maintaining good oral health. Our friendly dentists will do all that they can to help you relax and will explain any aspect of the treatment that you would like to know more about.

How to relax

We know that simply saying ‘just relax’ is probably not going to work but there are a number of tips that we have heard from our Wickford patients over the years that might help. It is a case of trial and error but hopefully you may find something that will help you from these three suggestions.

• Distract your mind by repeating a ‘mantra’. This could be something spiritual if you are that way inclined, or if not, perhaps repeat your children’s names and nicknames or even count to ten over and again in a language of your choice. Ultimately, this should be something simple and we think you’ll be surprised how quickly the time passes.
• Visualisation might help too. Some people find this very effective. The classic one is to imagine that you are on your favourite beach. This works for some although the sound can make this more difficult. One thing that seems moderately successful is to plan a treat for yourself following the treatment and run through that in your mind during the procedure.
• Steady your breathing. As we become anxious, our breathing often becomes faster and erratic. Try to bring yourself back to slow breathing. This is a well established technique that works for a lot of people.

There are also things that you can do before your appointment such as breathing or relaxation exercises. If your anxiety is so bad that you feel you won’t attend your appointment, please talk to your GP who may be able to prescribe something to help you relax on the day.

Don’t give in to dental phobia

Whatever you do, please don’t admit defeat and not attend dental appointments. All that this does is store up problems for the future. This ‘head in the sand’ approach is likely to mean that you will need to undergo a much more invasive procedure than if you had allowed us to detect and treat it earlier when it was less problematic. It is perfectly OK to accept that you might not enjoy any treatment but please keep in mind that it is usually over quite quickly and you can forget about it for a long time afterwards.

If you are a really nervous dental patient, we want to do all that we can to help you receive care and any treatment that is needed. Please let us know of your anxiety when you book your appointment at the Cygnet Dental Practice so that we can make the dentist aware of this. To discuss this with us, or for any general appointments, please call us on 01268 733078 and we’ll be pleased to help.