Dental Anxiety: What Is It? How to Ease It?

We all know the importance of dental hygiene, routine dental care and regular dental visits; however, some people don’t care about routine dental cares and they are afraid of visiting a dental office – it may be referred to as dental anxiety. Unfortunately, it is still not considered as a major concern but in reality, dental anxiety is among the root causes of all oral problems. Read this brief guide about dental anxiety, its symptoms, management, medication and all other possible dental anxiety treatment options.

Dental anxiety is an anxious feeling of having a dental treatment with needles, anesthesia or other surgical tools. The common dental anxiety symptoms are being stressed, sweating and panic after talking about having a dental treatment at the dental clinic. Due to dental anxiety, people may not go for the most necessary dental treatments as well and they eventually have to face severe dental problems in the future.

Despite several dental organizations and educational seminars, dental anxiety is still so common in the US. Every 1 out of the 3 people is facing dental anxiety and surprisingly more than 35% of the Americans are facing the dental anxiety symptoms. That’s why there are several medications available in the market e.g. valium for dental anxiety, diazepam for dental anxiety and temazepam for dental anxiety etc.

Some people are just afraid of dental treatment due to surgical procedures involved and others may be afraid of the high costs as well because basic dental treatment is surely one of the expensive treatments and it also requires a separate insurance other than normal health insurance. That’s why most people decide to part ways with regular dental prevention and routine dental care and eventually they start to face severe dental anxiety symptoms.

There may be a number of causes of dental fear and phobia. People may have been traumatized by past experiences or they may be just fearful about judgment or abuse once they open to their dentists. Furthermore, germophobia is one of the popular reasons to avoid dentists because we all know that all the viral germs enter our body through our mouth, so people having germophobia still try to avoid seeing dentists even if they need them. Along with germophobia, there may be some other serious causes of dental anxiety like claustrophobia, agoraphobia and obsessive compulsive disorder etc. In such cases, a proper therapy session and dental anxiety medication are among the suggested dental anxiety treatment options and they should be considered during dental anxiety management.

Yes! Your dental problems may cause you some mental problems like anxiety, stress and laziness. The health experts suggest that there is a strong connection between your oral health and mental health. If your oral health is suffering, you may be prone to restlessness and if your mental health is disturbed then you may also skip your daily oral care routine and eventually you may get some oral issues as well.

Furthermore, some dental problems like gum disease can actually cause you some serious mental conditions like stress, depression, anxiety and loneliness because they directly affect your nerves and muscles that are near to the brain.

Dental anxiety is majorly related to your mental health, so you should try to clear or relax your mind before going for some dental anxiety medication. There are several ways to prepare your mind to overcome your dental anxiety.
Some of these tips may help you regarding dental anxiety management and if you follow these tips, you may actually overcome your dental anxiety for real. Take note of them:

First of all, you should be clear about your particular reason for your dental anxiety. Whether you are afraid of needles and surgical apparatus or you are afraid of being open to a stranger and you’re germophobic or claustrophobic. Once you are clear about your particular reason for dental anxiety, you should talk about it with your family member or a nearest doctor.

Try some relaxation therapies to alleviate your dental anxiety symptoms. Some basic yoga steps and controlled breathing may do the trick.

If you are anxious about finding the right dentists and medicine prescription, you should do some homework to find the right dentist. Start by taking help of your closed ones.

If you are afraid of being ashamed in front of a dentist about your poor dental condition, try to book an appointment online to avoid the first face-to-face introduction with your dentist. Try writing a detailed description about your specific dental condition plus your dental fears.

Once you have an appointment, try to go with your friend or family member to have distractions and a fun trip to a dental clinic.

There are a number of dental anxiety treatment options that dentists use to manage your dental anxiety. They thoroughly observe the severity of your dental anxiety first and then start with either one of the dental anxiety treatment options. Some simply ask you to do some breathing exercises, others may go with sedation methods or dental anxiety medication.

Yes! Some dentists actually suggest anti-anxiety drugs or laughing gas to alleviate your dental anxiety before treatment. Some may use general anesthesia to make sure that you won’t feel any pain during any dental surgery.
They can also prescribe some medications as well. For example: valium, diazepam and temazepam are among the most popular medications that are prescribed by the dentists to manage dental anxiety. You can always contact our dentists, if you want to discuss your anxiety level or want a personalized appointment to avoid any public shaming while having a dental treatment.