Maintaining a healthy mouth requires healthy habits, such as a consistent at-home oral hygiene routine, healthy diet choices, and regular visits to your dentist. Unfortunately, dental anxiety and phobia can make it difficult, or impossible, to keep regular dental appointments.
If you experience severe anxiety around going to the dentist, it can feel overwhelming or hopeless. However, many patients work through their fear and achieve a sense of calm at appointments. Overcoming your anxiety will take time, but it is possible.
Normalizing Dental Anxiety
Before you can overcome your dental anxiety, it can be helpful to understand just how normal it is. Many Canadians experience some form of dental anxiety, ranging from slight jitters to a full phobia.
A 2013 study found that 36% of people have dental anxiety, with an additional 12% suffering from extreme dental phobia. Another study produced even higher results: 60% of the nearly 500 people interviewed reported fear of the dentist. This fear can present as a general unease before going to the dentist, all the way to an intense panic that prevents you from going to the dentist at all.
For some, their dental anxiety gets in the way of their oral health. You may be too anxious to go to the dental clinic for routine checkups, or too embarrassed to go because of your anxiety. Either way, your oral health suffers.
At Bristol Dental Clinic, we strive to break down the stigma surrounding dental anxiety. If you experience unease or fear before or during your appointments, let us know. We’re here to support you, not judge you.
Furthermore, dental anxiety can be overcome. With the right support network, determination, and patience, you can significantly reduce your anxiety around dental visits.
6 Tips for Anxiety Relief
If you’re struggling with dental anxiety or phobia, it’s essential to be patient with yourself. No one overcomes a fear overnight. Similarly, everyone’s journey looks different. What works for someone else may not work for you.
However, finding anxiety relief is possible. These tips are a great starting point. Try as many as you can and make note of what works (and what doesn’t).
Most importantly, don’t give up.
1. Speak Openly with Your Dentist
We want you to feel comfortable and safe whenever you visit our clinic. Only then can we provide the highest standard of dental care and protect your long-term oral health. When anxiety prevents you from visiting, we can’t do our job, which is to keep you healthy.
It can be helpful to remember that you are not the first or the only patient to experience dental anxiety. We understand what you’re going through. Moreover, we have helped many patients work through their fears. Our team is here to help you, too, without judgment.
When you share your anxieties with us, we can determine the best way to help. It includes taking extra steps to ensure your comfort and create positive experiences at our clinic. We can take breaks during treatment when you start to feel overwhelmed, explain each step in detail, recommend relaxation techniques, and provide a safe space for you to communicate your experience.
2. Start with Simple Procedures
As the famous idiom says, you need to learn to walk before you can run. Begin with baby steps. If you have extreme dental phobia, simply sitting in the dentist’s chair may be a significant win. For others, booking a dental cleaning is a good starting point.
By starting with simple procedures, you can gradually build up confidence and ease at the clinic. Non-invasive treatments, like dental cleanings and checkups, tend to feel safer for those with anxiety. Eventually, you can transition to more complex procedures as needed.
3. Learn Relaxation Techniques
There are many relaxation techniques that you can try. Breathing exercises, for instance. We often forget to breathe or breathe too rapidly when we’re afraid, so learning to control our breathing can help calm our racing minds. Practice closing your eyes and slowly inhaling through your nose, holding for a few seconds, and then slowly exhaling through your mouth. Repeat as long as needed.
You can use breathing exercises whenever you feel overcome with nervousness. It may be on your way to the clinic, as you wait for your appointment, or while you’re in the dentist’s chair.
Progressive muscle relaxation, visualization exercises, and other forms of meditation can also be helpful.
4. Use Distraction During Dental Visits
For many patients, distraction can be a very effective way to manage or diminish feelings of anxiety. Watching TV, listening to music, playing with a fidget spinner, or using your phone can help you “forget” about your fear by keeping your mind occupied before or during your appointment.
5. Bring Someone with You
Having a trusted friend or family member with you can also help. In some cases, a familiar face can do wonders for calming your anxiety and giving you the strength to face your fears. Even if you can’t speak during your appointment, they can still be a calming presence in the room. They can also drive you to and from your appointment if you’re feeling too anxious to drive safely.
6. Practice Self-Care Before and After Appointments
Try taking small steps to take care of yourself before and after your appointment. Practicing self-care before your dental visit can put you in the best possible mindset and set you up for success.
Afterwards, treating yourself is a welcome reward. It can also help establish positive associations in your mind. Instead of the day of your appointment being a source of fear and discomfort, it becomes the day when you get to go to your favourite restaurant or do a beloved activity. This technique is beneficial for both children and adults.
Sedation Dentistry
In some cases, relaxation techniques and patience may not be enough. When other methods fail, we recommend sedation dentistry for patients with relentless dental anxiety and phobia.
At Bristol Dental Clinic, we specialize in sedation dentistry using nitrous oxide as a sedative. It allows us to provide a soothing and stress-free experience for our patients. You remain conscious during the procedure, but do not experience discomfort or anxiety. The nitrous oxide (also known as laughing gas) generates a calming effect that relieves dental phobia and nervousness.
When you feel calmer about your visits to our clinic, we’re better able to provide the care you need. Nitrous oxide helps create a more positive patient experience. So you can feel comfortable and calm during your visits.
Bristol Dental Clinic Is Here
Patient comfort is at the heart of everything we do. Our team genuinely cares about your comfort and oral health. We’re ready to work with you to create a calming and soothing environment, so you can receive the care you need.
Please let us know if you experience dental anxiety. We are also happy to answer any questions you may have about sedation dentistry and how it can help you feel more at ease during your visits to our clinic.
To book an appointment with a dentist in Mississauga, call Bristol Dental Clinic at 866-673-2109 or contact us here.
