People
often think that their fears are unique, generally they are
not. Here are a selection of fears submitted by others who suffer
from dental fears and some suggestions on how to deal with some
of the most common ones.
I
fear the Dentist
Quite a sweeping statement. Before you can deal with this it
is necessary to try to break down the fear in manageable chunks.
Try to analyse what particular aspect causes the fear and the
try to find a way to handle it.
Generally dentists do the job because the want to help people
- so talk to them. Explain your fears and work with them to
help you alleviate your problems.
My
teeth are the worst the Dentist has seen
This is a very common fear and is a major factor in not attending
the dentist. You become too ashamed to open your mouth. Explain
to the dentist, in advance, that this is the way you feel.
Having
things placed in your mouth
Another very common fear.
It's difficult, but really helps to look at our fears in a rationally
rather than emotionally.
Think of it - we place things in our mouths all the time - food,
drink, chewing gum, toothbrushes & toothpaste, toothpicks.
And at one time, most of those were foreign objects to us. Have
you ever seen an infant spitting mashed carrots back out of
their mouth? Or a toddler whose mother is trying to teach him
to eat with a spoon reject the utensil and pick up food with
his hands? In either case the child is not comfortable with
something that's been placed in his mouth.
Through
repetition the infant becomes accustomed to food, the toddler
to a spoon
entering his mouth along with the food.
Two helpful hints:
1.During a dental visit - things are placed in the patient's
mouth - only for relatively short periods of time. The discomfort
will not last forever. Look at the big picture - during a one-hour
dental appointment things may be placed in your mouth for a
total of 40 minutes. Let's say you only go to the dentist once
in six months. Six months = 262,800 minutes. When you compare
the two - 40 minutes doesn't seem a long time at all.
2.Practice getting comfortable with "things" in your
mouth. Safe objects of course! Try a soup spoon or small serving
spoon. Hold the spoon (rounded side only) in your mouth for
5 minutes at a time. First response will be - Yuck! Getting
over any fear takes practice, and if you're serious about overcoming
yours, this is a simple method
Pain Modern dentistry has improved over the years. It may
not be 100% pain free but it can't be far off. Unsympathetic
Dentists:
What can I say ...... There are some. There are also many dentists
that are sympathetic or think they are. Is sympathy enough?
For some ... maybe, but for the phobic patient that is not enough.
Dental phobics need more than sympathy. They need understanding
and patience. It is not easy for a phobic to attend for treatment.
Sometime weeks, months or even years of preperation and hard
effort has gone in to even getting to the surgery for the first
time. It can be very easy to shatter the confidence, if they
have any, of the phobic patient. Even a slight delay can seem
like an eternity the fears, doubts and panic can quickly sneak
back, if at this point the phobic remains their ability to handle
things has dropped tremendously making it even harder for the
dentists. I know delays happen, irritating for the normal patients,
devastating for the phobic.
Simple little things, every day occurances to the non-phobic
patient, can adversly affect the phobic patient. It cannot be
easy for a dentist to treat the phobic patients, it must be
hard, a bit like walking on broken glass, I sympathise .....
but I could never truly understand what it is like ..... I am
not a dentist!
Needles
There is a gel that can be applied to your gum prior to the
injection. You don't feel the injection enter your gum.
If the injection
is given slowly you don't feel it.
Feeling
Pinned Down
It's common to "feel" pinned down in the dentist chair
and thoughts of being restricted
can only lead to thoughts of escape. That's where the tension
and anxiety come from. If
we stop to take a look at the facts in the situation - it can
help alleviate your fear.
Some feelings are based on truth. If your Grandmother dies and
you're sad, that's a true
feeling caused by a real and true event. Other feelings, although
the feel real, are fed by
inaccurate thoughts. You feel you're trapped or pinned down
in the dentist's chair, but
you're really not. The fact is: you can get up absolutely any
time you want to. You're not
strapped in, there are no restraints on you're arms and legs.
You're not shackled like a
prisoner. No one is pointing a weapon at you and insisting you
stay exactly where you
are. You're not fastened to the chair by any means whatsoever.
All our feelings come from our thoughts. The sadness you feel
over Grandmother's
passing, comes from your thoughts about missing her. The feelings
of fear and being
bound in one place come from your thoughts of being pinned down.
When you catch yourself thinking about being pinned down, whether
you're actually in the dentist's chair or simply anxious about
going for an appointment - remind yourself of the truth, the
real facts: When you're in the dentist's chair, you may be uncomfortable
- but there is absolutely nothing that can keep you from getting
up and leaving if that's the choice you make! So you're not
really pinned down at all.
