If You Have Dental Anxiety – Visit Our Dental Office for Help

Most people visit a dental office out of a sense of obligation or need. That being said, the dental office is the only place where you can improve your oral health, have your teeth taken care of, and learn about holistic steps that will prevent dental emergencies. Unfortunately, there are too many people that are extremely stressed out by the prospect of visiting the dentist, and often times will choose to ignore their health problems if it means avoiding the dentist. This is a significant issue, and in America alone, there are 26% of people, according to a recent survey, that know they are in need of dental services, and that dental services would help them to have improved oral health, but still prefer to avoid receiving medical care.

For some patients, who do visit the dental office, the anxiety is still very real. Between 9% and 20% of patients, who were asked, stated that they have some level of stress and anxiety before coming in to see the dentist. Many had that anxiety while in the waiting room of the dental office, while others were stressed because it has been a while since they had an examination and were worried that the dentist would find problems with their teeth that would require additional procedures to correct. All of these fears are perfectly legitimate, but more importantly, are not something that cannot be overcome. With the help of our friendly dental office staff, it is our goal to help you mitigate some of this anxiety to the point where you can visit our office comfortably. Here are three steps that can make a visit to our dental office less stressful.

A dental office can help you overcome your anxiety of dentistry.
 
Three things that can help you to overcome your anxiety is to build a level of comfort and familiarity, to learn what we do, and to understand that anxiety can be isolated to a singular cause. The first step is really the hardest for a lot of people since it involves committing to visiting the dentist more regularly. When you come in on a bi-annual basis to get non-invasive, simple, and often quick procedures done, it can directly conflict with the overarching belief that a dental office is a scary place. Familiarity kills the illusion of anxiety. Next, we want you to be educated and understand what we do, how we do it, and the tools that we use. This knowledge directly flies in the face of an idea that you are ever unsafe, and we have found that the more you ask about what we do, the less anxiety you will have about the unknown. Finally, you should identify any specific concerns that you have. If it is an anxiety of needles, or potential discomfort, or loss of control, we can isolate this and work with you during your appointments to reduce your stress and ensure that your anxiety is not being manifested.  We can also discuss options for sedation and medication to improve your experience.