Dental anxiety and fear are quite common concerns when visiting the dentist, hence the reason people search for the phrase ‘dentist near me for nervous patients’, this is quite understandable!

So, to help, we’ve researched some of the most common questions that people ask when they are nervous about visiting the dentist.

Do dentists hate to see anxious patients?

No, we don’t hate seeing anxious patients at all. We absolutely understand that it can often be quite disconcerting going to the dentist. Panic attacks and actual dental phobia unfortunately relatively rare.

What’s important is to let your dentist know that you are anxious, That way we can look for ways to help you know you are in safe hands and to help you overcome any physical symptoms of your anxiety.

The fight or flight response can be quite strong when we are put under stressful situations, communicating with us PRIOR to your appointment means we can understand what triggers any anxiety disorder and help avoid any trigger situation.

How can people overcome fear of going to the dentist?

A few simple tips are as follows:

• Book an appointment in the morning, this will ensure you can relax for the rest of the day as your appointment will be over.
• For regular appointments, make sure you have a good breakfast. This will set you up for the day and ensure your energy levels remain high.
• Lay off the alcohol! Not only does it dehydrate you but it can also make you worry.
• Bring a friend. Decide before hand on what you are going to talk about, make it subjects that relax you and keep you calm. Perhaps discuss a recent holiday, or where you are going next time.
• Recognise that you have an inner voice talking to you (we all have this) and that this inner voice can actually be controlled.
• Talk openly to us. We will NOT judge you or tell you off for not coming to see us… honestly
• Agree a stop signal with us, this will ensure that (like you inner voice technique) YOU are in control

It’s an incredibly important that you to visit the dentist regularly, to keep your dental health in tiptop condition and also ensure that you have routine oral cancer checks.

Is it normal that I’m scared of dentists judging my teeth?

It is quite a common misconception that dentists will judge your teeth. We absolutely will not. Our role is to investigate and report on anything clinically that we see. If we see a problem with your teeth we will let you know, based on the clinical evidence presented before us.

NEVER will we judge your teeth or anything about you. We may give you advice to get the best dental treatment to help you, but this is always done in a non-judgemental factual way.

What are my options if I’m terrified of the dentist?

There are a few options to help with anxiety or panic disorder at the dentist, we always recommend going with the least invasive option to begin with, in ascending order these are:

1. Talk to your dentist, be open and honest, follow our advice above and relax knowing that we have your best interests at heart.
2. Ask your dentist for oral sedation prior to visiting, a simple tablet can help you relax.
3. Relative analgesia could also be used, this is laughing gas, it is self-administered at the dentist and can help you relax deeply. Not all practices offer relative analgesia.
4. Conscious sedation via intravenous injection. This is often known as twilight sedation, you will be conscious but so deeply relaxed that you will have no recollection of your treatment at all. Many patients opt for this type of sedation when having treatments such as dental implants.

Why are most little kids afraid of dentists?

The honest truth is that children learn to feel nervous! Most commonly kids learn the behaviour from parents. Modern dentistry can be made extremely comfortable for adults and children alike and people are often surprised that it is completely pain-free most of the time.

Unfortunately people don’t often realise this and accidentally pass on dental anxieties to their kids.

One of the best ways to overcome this is to bring children to the dentist at a very early age, allow them to sit on your lap in the dental chair at the beginning, progressing to them sitting alone on the chair and just enjoying the ride as it goes up and down. As they progress into toddlers we can then begin to look in their mouth in a very gentle way.

How many adults have fears of going to the dentist?

In the United States up to 75% of people have some form of dental anxiety, according to the Journal of The American Dental Association. In addition to this approximately 20% of those people have a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder or phobia.

Oddly, in the UK these figures seem to be much lower:

• One in every seven adults who has ever been to a dentist suffers from extreme dental anxiety
• The most common fears for visiting a dentist are having a tooth drilled (30%) and having a local anaesthetic injection (28%)
• Visiting the Dentist is ranked number one (22%) for making people nervous, closely followed by heights (19%). Nearly 10 times as many people (22%) are nervous of visiting their dentists, compared to their doctor (2%)

Figures quoted via The British Dental Association.

Scared of the dentist? It’s quite common, but actually what is more common is people are overcoming that fear to have the treatment they need and/or want.

Here’s where your journey begins…

If your fear hits you when you first start thinking you need to come to the dentist, or that you need some form of treatment it can often seem like a huge mountain to climb. But we want to assure you that the journey of 1000 steps always starts with a first step. And it’s just like the joke:

“How do you eat an elephant?”

Answer… one bite at a time.

Overcoming dental fear is the same… overcome it one small step or bite at a time.

Tip #1 – Time to unlearn?

Think about it now, you weren’t born with a fear of the dentist, babies are a blank canvas and have no such irrational fears. However, as we get older we have certain experiences that shape our views, we actually learn fears that weren’t with us earlier on.

The problem is that we have these experiences once and they then shape our thought patterns by teaching us new behaviours i.e. to be scared of the dentist, this is a key point to understand, your fear is a learnt behaviour – and if it can be learnt, a new way of thinking can also be learnt.

So, take number one is to accept that you learned this behaviour at some point. Accepting this means a new behaviour and way of thinking can also be learnt.

Tip #2 – Talk to your dentist

Talking is good. Your dentist will have experience this many times before and will have a multitude of ways they can help. For example, if even walking in through the door is a problem your dentist can overcome this by talking on the phone, then chatting to you in the reception area (no dental ‘stuff’ in sight). Once you’ve got this far you can discuss simple next steps in helping you, all working to help you overcome your fear at your own pace.

The real key in overcoming your fear is to talk to and open up communication, most people’s fears are based on outdated ways of doing things that are easily avoided, dentistry has changed an awful lot in recent years and many of those old techniques are no longer used.

Tip #3 – Book an early morning appointment

This is a quick and easy one to do, rather than sit there all day worrying about your dental appointment, book an appointment as early in the morning as you possibly can. It’s then a case of getting up, getting ready and getting on with it… No time to worry.

Tip #4 – Bring a friend

Bringing a friend can be a real help but is recommended that you work out in advance discussion topics. There’s nothing worse than sitting in the dentist waiting room with your friend blankly staring into space and feeling anxious. Agreed topics such as holidays, days out or simply bring your diaries so you can work out when you are next going to catch up… The trick is to work out in advance what you are going to discuss, you will find the time flies by.

Tip #5 – Agree a STOP signal

Most dentists, if they know you are anxious, will ensure there is a stop signal agreed. If for any reason this doesn’t happen just mention it when you sit in the chair. Tell your dentist that you are scared and say that you will raise your right hand if you want them to stop at any time.

This puts you in control which can easily remove a great deal of the fear in itself.

Tip #6 – control the voices

Do you hear voices in our head?

If you are thinking ‘No I don’t have voices’ then THAT’S the voice we are talking about, the one that just said ‘I don’t have any voices’!

We all have voices in our head that talk to us telling us things… ‘you’re no good’ ‘ you’re fat’ ‘ you’re scared of the dentist’… now you know the voice we mean. In fact most people read in their heads using that exact same voice.

A key strategy on overcoming fear and relaxing at the dentist is to learn to control these voices, so try this exercise now… it may seem odd, but try it as it will work brilliantly for you.

1) Say in your mind something mean about yourself.

Not anything too mean, but something that is important to you and has meaning for you, something like “You’ll never be any good at anything’… you know, the kind of thing we were told as kids and we keep with us as adults.

2) Now take that voice and remove it from your head and imagine it on your shoulder, allow it to keep saying those mean things.

Notice how it seems to have less power now that it is out of your head and on your shoulder

3) Now hold you arm out straight in front of you, put your thumb up vertically, and imagine your voice coming from the tip of your thumb.

As you do this now, notice that even though the words are the same, the power of the voice is weaker.

4) Now give that voice on the tip of your thumb a comedic voice, something really funny and stupid. Allow it to say the same mean things, but allow that voice to say them from the tip of your thumb and in a comedic and funny voice.

Notice this time how the power is completely gone from that voice. Notice how YOU have controlled that voice to take away it’s power.

Now you have realised that YOU are in control of the nagging voice in your head, each time it mentions fear, then place it at the end of your thumb, give it a comedic funny voice and the power of that negative thought has gone.

Tip #7 – Relax with help

Many times it’s easy to offer some form of dental sedation to help with relaxing at the dentist, this is often called sleep dentistry.

Sleep Dentistry

Sleep dentistry is when you have a small injection in the back of the hand or in the crook (front) of your elbow. The intravenously administered drug allows you to drift off into your own world, you will have no memory of what happened afterwards making it an exceptionally great way to have dental treatment.

Dentistry often requires the patient to be conscious during treatment, you may be asked to bite together so that the dentist can see how the teeth meet, sleep dentistry allows you to do this but means you can relax deeply whilst having the treatment.

Sleep dentistry will require you to be taken home by a reliable adult and have that persons stay with you for a little while afterwards.