Dental Anxiety And Dental Fear And Phobia

There are many causes of dental phobia and reasons why individuals just do not want to visit the dentist bi-yearly for an exam or even for further procedures. While a lot of causes are unknown, there are some that are more obvious. Some people have a generalized fear of pain. This is a very common reason for an individual to skip the dentist office altogether. This reason of phobia is usually caused by an unpleased or painful previous dental experience or from someone else’s story about their negative experiences. An article from Web MD called Easing Dental Anxiety in Adults states, “Thanks to the many advances in dentistry made over the years, most of today’s dental procedures are considerably less painful or even pain-free” (2016).. A second cause behind some people’s dental phobia is fear of injections or fear of injection failure. The majority people are very afraid of needles. This fear increases when it involves needles inserted into their oral cavity. (Colgate, 2016). Some people even fear that the anesthesia has failed and it did not relieve them of their pain before the dental treatment begins. Along with the fear of injections comes the fear of anesthetic side effects. Some individuals dread the side effects that anesthesia is likely to cause, such as dizziness, nausea, and feeling faint. Others do not like the loss of feeling they experience in their oral cavity. A third cause of dental phobia is the feeling of helplessness and loss of control. People

Evidence increasingly shows that poor oral health is associated with functional disability that can lead to deficits and decline” (Overview of oral health, 2017). According to an article in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research, dental fear can have a significant impact on a person’s awareness of their oral health, as well as one’s pro-active steps towards prevention and treatment. Therefore, it is paramount in helping a patient alleviate their fear by listening to the patient, acknowledging their concerns, and taking things slowly (Yildirim,

Hook: Odontophobia is the fear of the dentist, shockingly, many have a fear of this, and even teeth themselves. The thought of some stranger taking drills and shiny metal tools to your mouth is enough to understand the fear itself. Odontophobia is the reason I didn’t choose the occupation of a dentist; I chose the work of a dental hygienist. A dental hygienist will: remove stains, and plaque from teeth, apply fluorides to help protect teeth, take and develop dental x-rays, assess the patients’ oral health and report findings to dentists, document patient care and treatment plans, and educate patients about oral hygiene techniques.

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The stigmatism attached to going to the dentist goes out the door when meeting the dental staff and their ability to get patient’s minds off of the procedure they are about to perform.

“No, please do not make me go, I hate the dentist”, is the sentence my brother would repeat every time our mom would announce we had a dentist appointment date approaching. On the other hand, I definitely preferred going to the dentist office than the doctor office. I admired the tools and the distinct sound they made, the scrubs the employees wore, and last but not least the free dental goody bag we received once our appointment was finished. Earlier this year I decided that dentistry is what I will major in and work as because I want to be more than an assistant, I have always been interested in the occupation, and it will bring stability. I can not recall one moment that I did not want to go to the dentist.

The article I have chosen was obtained from WebMD and is called “Don’t Fear the Dentist.” The article begins by stating that dental anxiety is a problem that causes countless of patients to avoid going to the dentist. According to the Dental Fears Research Clinic—a source mentioned in the article—about five to eight percent of Americans will not visit the dentist due to dental anxiety, and about twenty percent of Americans will not go to the dentist unless their condition is serious. The reasons for patients’ dental anxiety can be due to previous unpleasant experiences in a dental office, anxiety disorders, physical abuse, substance abuse, stress, and other less common factors.

Loss of teeth is a major event in life that remembers the person that life is fragile, so the patient will feel with some depression. Emotional preparation of the patient is very important as the preparation of the tissues of the basal seal. Severe gagging may be also an emotional reaction to the lost teeth. In addition, dental anxiety may create a psychological barrier between need and demand. Normal patients respond to fear and anxiety on three levels. The first is the “Intellectual Level” where the patient is willing to accept and face difficulties and the third level is the lowest

Fear of the dentist is more common today than most people would imagine. You’re probably very familiar with individuals fearing the dentist, especially if you work or have worked in the dental field. So, what is dental fear? Is it an idea that our parents put in our heads because it was passed down to them from their parents? Is it an emotion that is formed based on images shaped in the mind about going to the dentist? Dental anxiety is abnormal fear or dread of visiting the dentist for preventative care or therapy and unwarranted anxiety over dental procedure. (U.S National Library of Medicine, N.D.) Patients who experience dental anxiety will have a sense of nervousness and unfounded worries or fears. “Some studies have concluded that 75% of people have at least some fear about dental visits.” (Penn Dental, May. 15, 2017.) Dental phobia is a more serious condition. It's an intense fear or dread. “People with dental phobia aren't merely anxious, they are terrified or panic stricken.” (Colgate, September 18, 2013.) Many people with dental phobia typically avoid the dentist unless they have pain and only find it necessary to seek treatment. Negative experiences in childhood are the most common causes of dental fear. So, what can we do to rationalize with our patients? Educate!

I can relate this experience to the periodontal course. This experience relates to it because Lisa lectured us on smoking tobacco cessation, as well as the over all health of an individual. I remember she told us that the oral health could influence the health of a human body. If a patient fails to visit the dental clinic regularly, it could be affecting his or her overall health. Also, I can relate this experience to my patients I have seen so far. So far in this semester, I have seen patient who have never been to the dentist due to dental anxiety. From what I have learned from them, it takes a lot of courage to go seek for oral hygiene care. Helping them understand the importance of seeking treatment regularly, helped improved their anxiety

Fear of the dentist is actually quite common and it's something that you can manage. if these tips don't help, consider talking to a psychologist about your fear of the dentist. He or she can teach you relaxation techniques and give you other tools that will make dental check-ups easier for

It's almost impossible to predict when and where the next dental emergency will hit you, and therefore, it is necessary to prepare yourself to act upon the situation with patience and extreme prudence. It would also serve well if you have all the essential knowledge on what to do when a sudden situation of emergency strike you hard. A dental emergency is also a very common issue where patients experience a very severe toothache, causing them a huge amount of anxiety and physical discomfort. Anything could be a reason of a dental emergency like dental cavities or a poor dental hygiene. In most of the cases, the pain becomes so serious that it becomes extremely difficult for the patient to proceed with their normal day-to-day activities because all

In dentistry, anxiety is categorized into two: Dental phobia and dental anxiety. A person with dental phobia tends to avoid treatment maybe because of unpleasant experience in the past. Dental anxiety, by contrast, relates to the psychological and physiological variations of a non-pathological fear response to a dentist’s appointment or treatment. Individuals who cancels, avoids, or postpones dental visits are the anxious patients (Bhola and Malhotra, 2014).It is a major dilemma in pediatric dental practice and it exists in a considerable proportion of children and adolescents. According to the study of Gao et al (2013), about 6-15% of the world's adult population avoids dental care due to dental anxiety and dental phobia. The catastrophic

Frequently dental anxiety can directly effect a child’s oral health. Oral health for children has a significant effect on their overall health; however, dental anxiety can present a major barrier to children receiving dental treatment (Bhatia & Chadwick, 2010, p. 88). Often times anxious pediatric dental patients can have more decayed, missing, and filled tooth surfaces compared with pediatric patients that have low levels of dental anxiety. (Porritt, et al., 2013, p. 130). It’s been reported that children diagnosed with active caries are found to be more fearful than other kids, and this is most like credited to previous negative dental treatment experiences (Taani, El-Qaderi, & Abu Alhaija, 2005, p. 84). Dental anxiety may be a contributing

People have always been afraid of dentists, and that fear is growing larger every year. The fear driven by a number of factors that may relate to the person and their association of dentists with pain, or the fear of the sound of the machines caused by fears originating from childhood memories and other experiences in life. The fears of past hearings related to the dentists and their actions may be a reason for fear in the patients. It dwells on the various reasons why people fear dentists, the solutions to that fear, ways in which people can develop love for dentists and deal with the fear including different methods that the dentists may apply to attract people to the clinics.