8MAY 2025
Testimonials
What is Dental Phobia
Dental phobia is a condition where people have intense and unfounded fear of dentists and dental care. A person with dental phobia manifests extreme levels of anxiety of going to a dentist. This kind of fear and anxiety is a culprit of both children and adults.
Causes of Dental Phobia
People have different triggers of fear that prevent them from visiting a dentist. Some patients fear the pain and injection and others fear losing control. Some of the causes of dental phobia include traumatic dental experiences and scary stories about dental treatment.
You may have had a traumatic dental treatment experience during your visit to a dentist in your life. The treatment could have been so painful. The dentist was insensitive to your concerns and brutal to you.
Some people have been told frightening stories about visits to a dentist, especially from those close to them. These creepy experiences make people extremely anxious of seeing a dentist, so they try hard to avoid making a visit to a dentist.
Effects of dental phobia in your daily life
Severe dental problems
People who suffer from extreme anxiety are highly likely to avoid dental care appointments. As a result, these people miss regular cleaning of the teeth and daily dental checkup which are crucial in preventing gum and dental diseases. Poor dental hygiene leads to increased tooth decay of the dental patients. Consequently this make dental patient's experience vicious cycle of acute pain.
Poor health
A decayed tooth is a breeding ground for bacteria. These bacteria can travel through the bloodstream to the heart and make you develop a heart attack. You can also develop stroke because bacteria may narrow the arteries walls and cause blood clot.
Building trust with the dentophobia patient
Many dentophobia patients have had daunting encounters with dentists in past and as a result, they have lost confidence in dentists. As a dentist, you can build trust with your patient by forming a relationship with the patient.
Choose a room away from the operation room and have a one-on-one discussion with the patient. Try as much as possible through your friendship to understand your patient's fears. Explain clearly the details of the upcoming treatment to the patient and pay greater attention during treatment to avoid injuring the patient.
Strategies for treating patients with dental phobia
The number of dentophobia patients is rapidly increasing and dentists must cope faster with this development in order to offer effective dental service.
Using a psychotherapist
Dentophobia patients are extremely anxious and this can prevent effective dental treatment. A dentist can refer the patient to a psychotherapist for therapy. A psychotherapist can counsel you to determine the cause of the anxiety and teach you strategies to cope with the problem. A therapist can also prescribe anti-anxiety medication to treat anxiety.
Dental fear is something that can cause dental problems to worsen. People may even fear going for routine checkups because they will be told that their next appoint is to remove their teeth. However, the earlier you get your dental problem detected, the easier the treatment, and you may not even have to go through a tooth removal.
Do you have dentist phobia?
At Smile Crafters, we offer compassionate, personalized care to make your dental experience comfortable and stress-free. Visit us and feel the difference.
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