Dentists have been traditionally feared by many because of their nasty reputation. Reputation rather than anything is actually responsible why many people fear a trip to the dentist. If you get seriously tensed up at just the thought of visiting a dentist, you are most likely to be suffering from Dental Anxiety or Entophobia which is the fear of receiving dental care or the dentist himself. People affected with dental anxiety might get filled with a deep sense of insecurity and fear when they visit a dentist. Quite a majority of the people, around 75% suffer from varying degrees of dental anxiety. Around 20% of these will only visit a dentist if they just have to as in case of extreme pain or emergencies. It is however natural to feel a little anxious before a dentist appointment. This article discusses the causes of dental anxiety. 1. Embarrassment: Many people are embarrassed at the condition of their mouth and are worried about how the dentist will react after seeing their teeth. They think they have the worst set of teeth in the world. Be assured that dentists see such cases on a daily basis. It’s their job to help you overcome such conditions. 2. Prior Experiences: These can be the most powerful reason for the fear of dentists. A person with a bad past experience might strongly oppose the idea of ever visiting a dentist again. Although bad experience is a valid reason for fearing something, it might be worthwhile to have a check on why you had a bad experience. If your visit has been quite a few years back, be informed that dentistry is a constantly developing field and old methods have been replaced by painless advanced methods. You might have had a really bad experience while undergoing a procedure and you hate your dentist after that. What you don’t realize that there were 10 other people the same day that got treated by the same dentist with out any problem. You just happened to have a bad day. Just as if you were driving and had a crash, you wouldn't quit driving because you know you just had a bad day and it doesn't happen all the time. 3. Immediate surroundings: If you fear the dentist, it is very likely that you passed this on to your children as well. This is because children learn by what they see. If they see you fearing the dentist, obviously they would too. Not just parents, children can imbibe such a fear from any one close to them such as relatives, friends. 4. Others experience: We often tend to relate to emotions of others. If your best friend had a terrible encounter with a particular dentist and cried in front of you for the same, you will be definitely affected by such an incident. Or simply if someone close to had a painful ordeal while undergoing a RCT and told you and your dentist informed you in your next appointment that you should get an RCT done, its highly likely you would want to run away from your dentist. 5. Dentist’s fault: Some dentists remain insensitive towards the patients and this can immensely affect a patients opinion especially kids. Dentists ought to know that not the treatment itself is part of their profession but also caring and making the patient comfortable. Mocking at the patient or making insensitive comments directed at the patients is also responsible for people developing hate for the dentist. 6. The Instruments: Some people are driven nuts just at the site of "The drill". Although, it does appear intimidating the drill is not actually painful. In many cases, you are given an anesthetic which makes you insensitive to any possible pain. Besides this, there is an advanced alternative to the drill which is known as laser dentistry. A few dentists trained in laser dentistry offer this. The best advice to people suffering from dental anxiety is to visit a dentist who expertises in treating such patients. Dentistry is not about giving pain to you but preventing any pain to you.
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