Albertville, AL
When you have an upcoming dental appointment, do you get nervous? Anxious? If so, you’re not alone. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association found that 73% of survey respondents had at least some level of fear over going to the dentist; that’s nearly three out of every four people who responded.
As you can see, if a potential dental visit has you feeling nervous, worried, or scared, you’re alone – far from it. Read on as your dentist in Albertville explores five ways to manage this fear about seeing the dentist.
Dental anxiety is a serious condition
Someone with dental anxiety experiences feelings of nervousness, worry, apprehension, fear, or even terror when they go to the dentist, or sometimes if they just think about a trip to a dental office. Many people who suffer from these issues do so because they had a traumatic dental experience in the past. The problem comes when someone with dental anxiety just ignores dental care as a result; this might mean avoiding the dentist for years, which only magnifies any existing issues, which means more intensive treatment will be needed, and just aggravates the existing feelings of anxiety and fear.
5 Ways to manage dental anxiety
- Communicate with your dentist: Be sure to tell your dentist or one of their staff members about your feelings of anxiety and fear. At Wall Street Dentistry, our team of experienced oral health professionals is familiar with working with patients who get anxious, and we will address your concerns with understanding and compassion. We can explain each step of the process in any procedure, before it happens. That understanding often makes people less nervous.
- Practice relaxation techniques: Doing some deep breathing can significantly reduce the amount of stress you feel, in general. Take a deep breath through your nose, hold it for a few seconds, then breathe out slowly through your mouth. These deep breaths can help regulate your breathing and heartbeat. Meditation and mindful thinking can serve similar purposes, helping to promote calmness and release tension from the body.
- Guided imagery: This entails visualization of a “happy place” and focusing on that when you’re in the midst of a stressful situation. You may also try to think about treasured memories or places you’ve been, as remembering this brings you joy, which helps to relax your mind.
- Medication: For more severe cases of dental anxiety, your dentist may prescribe you a short-acting anti-anxiety medication, to be taken shortly prior to your dental visit. These medications can be powerful; if you are given a prescription like this, we recommend you arrange transportation to and from your appointment.
- Sedation: Wall Street Dentistry provides sedation dentistry services for our patients who suffer from dental anxiety. Our methods of sedation include nitrous oxide and oral sedation. With nitrous, otherwise known as laughing gas, the patient breathes in the gas in a mask that fits over the nose. Oral sedation is more powerful and comes in pill form. No matter which method you choose, the results should be the same: strong feelings of relaxation and diminished anxiety. In fact, many people who choose sedation dentistry don’t even remember the details of their dental procedure.
Sedation dentistry in Albertville and Gadsden in Alabama
Stop letting your feelings of anxiety and fear deprive you of the quality dental care you need. To find out more, call the office of Wall Street Dentistry today at (256) 878-0525 or contact us online.