Dental Phobia

by maria | Last Updated: December 7, 2020

Dental Phobia: Know It To Face Dentist with Confidence 

Dental phobia or anxiety, the fear of going to the dentist is very common across the world. Reasons and intensity of fear could vary from person to person depending on experience, exposure, culture, and other inherent mental ailments triggering panic attacks. If you are one of those who fear visiting a dentist, don’t worry, you are not alone as surveys suggest that dental phobia or anxiety affects 13% to 24% of people globally. Dental anxiety is disturbing for some but not disabling, but in some cases, this could be challenging as avoiding dental care could worsen the situation.

People with dental phobia know very well that the fear is totally irrational but they fail to control emotional reactions and show avoidance behavior. Thankfully, dentists are trained to help patients manage and control behavioral reactions, but in extreme cases of pathological phobia and anxiety, you might need the assistance of a psychologist trained in anxiety treatment.

Symptoms of Dental Phobia 

dental-phobia

Some amount of restlessness is pretty common when you visit any doctor. The reason for restlessness could be anything, but when it comes to dental phobia it is mostly the fear of injections, equipment, and of course the pain. Besides the common restlessness, the symptoms of dental phobia could be:  

Dental Phobia Causes

The effectiveness of the dental treatment depends on your readiness and for that, you should share all possible details including dental phobia or anxiety with your dentist. Although the dentist will ask some preliminary questions to know about your level of anxiety, self-disclosure will help him prepare you better either by psychotherapeutic interventions or/and pharmacological interventions. The best possible way to know about dental phobia or anxiety is to know common reasons that cause dental phobia or anxiety. Some of the common reasons are:

Dentists are trained to manage dental phobia or anxiety so that dental procedures could be executed as per the best practices. If required your dentist might recommend psychotherapeutic interventions, which could be either behaviorally or cognitively oriented. Alternatively, dentists could control your phobia pharmacologically using either sedation or general anesthesia. In behavior-modification therapies, you will be trained to unlearn unacceptable behaviors and learn muscle relaxation and breathing relaxation through suitable treatments. The most acceptable therapy to manage dental phobia currently is cognitive behavior therapy, in which the content of negative behavior is altered and restructured to improve the emotional control of the patient.

Maria Giovanisci is an enterprising dentist from London. Maria graduated from the University of Murcia and began her professional career in her own dental clinic before, she decided to embark on a joint project with her two colleagues. Aside from contributing on this blog, she also works in the public health sector at the new Torrevieja Hospital.

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