ARE YOU SCARED OF THE DENTIST? TIPS AND ADVICE FOR A DENTAL CHECKUP
Most of us have a fear of something or other in our lives. Some are afraid of heights, water, specific shapes, etc. We all have it regarding something in our life, and that’s natural. But any fear becomes a matter of concern when it is too intense. And when fear gets too severe/extreme, it is termed a phobia. There are different types of dread associated with varying types of fear; similarly, the intense fear of dentists is known as dentophobia.
Dentophobia, in the most simple terms, means that an individual extremely fears either going to the dentist or seeing the dentist, or even hearing about them. This can be a severe issue as people with this phobia tend to avoid going to the dentist and therefore go on neglect their dental health and condition. So dentophobia can cause an individual’s dental as well as mental health to deteriorate and hence, needs to be coped with.
In this article, we’ll go on looking at the possible reasons that may lead to occur this phobia of dentists and then give you some tips to overcome it.
Causes of dentophobia as discussed by the professional teaching in International Schools in Hyderabad :
- Personal experience — Some people have a memory of a personal bad/traumatic experience they had with any dentist, which may lead them to face dentophobia. Meanwhile, some may have such an experience and memory that they don’t correctly remember, but the extreme feeling of fear is with them. For instance, if an individual had a bad experience in his/her childhood, then he/she might not remember it, but its feeling might still be stored in his/her subconscious part of the brain.
- Other’s experience — Some people also trigger this phobia when they hear about other people’s bad experiences because upon hearing this, they start imagining the situation the way the other one described it.
- Tools & environment — Apart from bad experiences, some also have a fear associated with the tools that dentists use and the general atmosphere of a dental clinic. In this case, the sound of a dentist’s instruments and the smell that lingers in a clinic can effectively trigger phobia for such individuals.
- Bad news — Some individuals might be aware of the fact that their dental health is not fit and they need treatment. But this awareness takes them to another line of thought that upon going to the dentist, they might hear some bad news about their dental health, which again triggers the phobia.
- Pain — Finally, the most anticipated reason for fear of going to the dentist is another fear of the possibility of pain if they went to the clinic.
Tips to overcome the fear of dentists provided by Experts from Eduminatti :
- Lungful breathing — Any kind of fear, stress, or anxiety is deemed to shrink when you start taking deep breaths. Deep/lungful breaths are proven to instantly calm the human mind from overwhelming thoughts, scenarios, and memories.
- Music — All the same again, use music to relax. But phobia makes you all anxious and stressed, so why not use music to calm yourself? Just plug in a while wait to be called, and get ambient with it.
- Ask — one of the most helpful tricks to slowly diminish the fear of dentists is to ask your dentist to explain whatever he/she is going to do to treat you. Your dentist will then explain the procedure to you in a straightforward and understandable manner. This will effectively take down your fear. Plus, you’ll trust your dentist better.
- Get accompanied — You can ask a friend or a sibling you’re comfortable with to come with you to the dentist. Now I need not explain that having warm/comfortable company will de-stress you of all the fears you have, and you’ll ultimately be lost with them in the convos.
- Choice — To lose the fear of a dentist, you need to trust your dentist amply. So you must choose a dentist correctly for you. You may ask for suggestions from your close friends and associates, their expression of thoughts while suggesting you the dentist can help you to trust the dentist.
- Two steps — This is a very effective technique to cope with dental fear. You can fix an appointment with the dentist for just a checkup. The dentist will check and see if any treatment is needed. Then if treatment is necessary, don’t directly go on it, instead tell him/her that you’ll come prepared in a day or two for the treatment, and before leaving, ask about the procedure to him/her. This will give you some more time to get comfortable with the idea of getting treated, and you can appear all fresh for treatment.
- Talk to your subconscious mind — For just a short brush-up, your subconscious mind is that part of your brain that stores all your thoughts, feelings, and memories and brings them to your senses when you encounter a similar situation or experience. Now any memory or feeling only gets communicated to your subconscious mind when attached to a strong emotion. So what you can do is, think about dentists and their treatments from a logical point of view, and if you’ve had a bad experience, think logically about it too. This will replace that feared feeling in your subconscious mind with a different sense of logic that you’re not going to get hurt by dentists.
Having a dentist-related fear is all-natural. You just have to overcome it. And you don’t need to strongly believe yourself as a hero or a conquerer with a strong motivation to overcome this fear. You can cope with it just by following the above-mentioned simple tips, so good luck!
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