How To Get the Dental Work You Need Without Fear

By R.S. Mayberry, DDS

The thought of dental treatment can create fear for many people. In a survey by Noven Pharmaceuticals, researchers found that 50 percent of adults expressed some fear when faced with the prospect of sitting in a dentist's chair.

Many patients handle this fear by frequently breaking appointments, even avoiding the most routine office visits. The irony here is that avoidance ultimately leads to dental emergencies the most “uncomfortable” (and expensive) events these patients seek to avoid.

For these patients, usually there has been a painful dental treatment experience and/or a difficult relationship with a previous dentist in the past that has fostered a patient's dental fear. For these people, just the thought of hands and tools entering the mouth can trigger a fearful response. Many people also describe feelings of claustrophobia.

The most significant factor in reducing dental fear is the ability of the dentist and staff to quickly develop a connection with each patient. Connected relationships with patients begin by knowing how to ask the patient what he or she is feeling and responding to each patient after really listening to ask is not enough, a good provider must actually listen before any treatment of any kind is even suggested. This may seem obvious, but can you think of a time when your dental care provider may have asked a question about your concern over potential discomfort that you couldn't even answer because their hands were already in your mouth?

Immediately exploring a patient's fear or concerns over potential discomfort helps reduce fear.

For example, if you have extreme fear and tell your dentist that you can't even stand the thought of getting a numbing injection, they can explain the options for sedation (assuming they have this special training) and help you decide if you may be a candidate for sedation.

Sedation dentistry may be the greatest advance ever made towards truly pain free and fear free dentistry procedures. Sedation dentistry allows you to be sedated just enough to be pain free and unaware of the treatment, as if you were sleeping. That is why it is normally referred to as 'conscious sedation' dentistry. Sedation can help if you have sensitive teeth, a fear of dentists, have a bad gag reflex, hate needles, or want to combine procedures that may otherwise require multiple visits.

With sedation your dentist can restore sore gums to good dental health, fix a chipped tooth, replace crowns or dentures, remove wisdom teeth, place dental implants, and more all with as little pain as possible.

The dental sedation option could be one of the most important health decisions you ever make, especially now that we have overwhelming research that shows the connection between your dental health and your overall risk for other diseases like cardiovascular and stroke.