3 Tips to overcome Dentophobia

March 23rd, 2019 | by: Admin | Posted in: Blog

My mom has to take a Xanax before she goes to the dentist, every time. That’s true of a lot of people, even those looking for a Woodland Hills dentist to get a simple checkup. Dentists are scary and the only thing might induce more fear in some is a clown dentist, aka Bojack Horseman. These are simple tips to overcome dentophobia that can help reduce anxiety before having to schedule an appointment with your dentist and going through the whole ordeal. There’s no reason you should avoid seeing a dentist and fail to maintain your dental health of out of fear. Even though 5-8% of americans do just that.

1. Get comfortable with your Dentist

Clearly that’s going to be impossible while they’re digging around inside your mouth. Schedule your first appointment with them to just be a talking session. They can help explain everything to you and put your mind at ease. At the same time, you can grow more comfortable with them and build trust. They aren’t here to hurt you. They only want to help.

If you’re finished talking with them and you decide that they aren’t the right fit, for whatever reason, you should be under no obligation to see them again. There is plenty of dentists out there and at least one of them will be compatible with you. Take your time and choose to work with someone you’re comfortable with.

2. Breathing Exercises

The internet is a great resource for finding a variety of breathing exercises for you to do before you go to the dentist and some that you can perform while the dentist is working on you. Not only will some of the exercises that you do help relieve your anxiety on their own, but it can also give you something to distract yourself with. That leads me to my next point.

3. Distract yourself

Focus on anything that isn’t the dentist. I know this is an incredibly tall offer but obsessing over the possibility of pain can actually make something more painful than it is. The way this works is in your brain’s ability to modulate pain, that is the part that’s telling us what we do and don’t feel. (It even affects the severity). Under stress, you lose a lot of this ability, even the unconscious part of it. Distracting yourself is all in an effort to reduce stress on the body, and then the brain can be freed up to do what it has to do.

4. Be sure that you control the situation

A lot of our stress and anxiety comes from a place of not being in control. We feel powerless with this stranger doing things to us that we can’t stop, or have very little influence over. This harkens back to talking with your dentist beforehand. Make sure they understand that you have some fears and that you need to be in control. The majority of a dentist is fine with this and if you need to stop you’ll be able to stop. The ones that aren’t clearly aren’t compatible with you, and you need to find a different practitioner. Being in control can help reduce anxiety and you can find yourself in a better place than you were before.

Conclusion

There’s no reason you should be scared of your dentist. Regardless, some are and we have to find a way to work past it for our own comfort and benefit. With these tips, you’ll be able to find a suitable woodland hills dentist. Remember to talk to your dentist and set up an appointment today. Don’t neglect your dental health out of fear.