Dr. Pavan B Tambakad

Do you have a dental phobia? if yes then you are not alone many adults skip going to dentist just because of dental fear. Fear among kids is very common. 

Today we will find out the reasons and possible causes of dental fear among the adults and the ways to deal with them.

You might have faced following situations before dental appointment:-

Nervousness a night before when you plan a visit to a dentist next morning. Anxiety in waiting room at dental clinic before starting your dental treatment. Scary instruments make you feel uneasy like injections and the drill machine. Good thing is there are ways to deal with above said expressions and they are not really hard to implement.

What causes the dental fear?

Fear of pain. Fear of dental injections in mouth. Embarrassment to face with bad looking teeth and may be mouth odor. Fear of scary instruments and their noises.

So here are some tips you can help yourself to deal with the dental phobia:

Discuss:– discuss your fear with your dentist. Tell him openly what exactly your are worried for. This will help your dentist to modify the treatment modalities. He may explain you the course of treatment in more details to relieve your anxiety and you will exactly come to know what is going to happen in your mouth next time when you visit your dentist.

Desensitize: this is the commonly used method to reduce dental fear in kids. Desensitizing here means exposing to the same environment more frequently than before. This can work in adults too. Visit your dentist more often. That should make you acclimatized with the sounds atmosphere of the dental clinic.

Plan smartly: after discussing your fear with dentist he himself can advise you to start with simple treatment options where no anesthesia is required like teeth whitening, polishing, teeth fillings etc.

Be Positive learner: we all are tend to attract all negatives which are running on the web. Restrain yourself from negative feeds try to find positives. Ask your doubts to the expert (dentist) than to rely on someone who is not. Stop hiding: no dentist will charge you more just because of your bad oral hygiene or mouth odor. They are use to this on daily basis. Delaying the treatment won’t improve your current hygiene level in fact you are inviting the more complex treatments by doing this. They may take longer to treat and may cost your pocket harder.