Nervous patients
It is reported that ca. 53% of the UK population may suffer from fear or anxiety during their dental visit. When slight nervousness turns to all-out panic, the anxiety for visiting the dentist become an unpleasant experience. At least 17% of the population suffer from dental fear or dental phobia to a level that makes those patients avoid the dentists. This can lead to detrimental oral and mental health consequences such as chronic pain, gum disease, mobile teeth, infectious oral disease, and eventually deteriorated general health.
Dentalphobia.co.uk was established to support nervous patients to overcome their unknown and programmed fears and apprehension to avoid further oral health deterioration. This website provided various resources and guidelines to address the causes and consequences and resolution of phobia and anxiety for dental treatment. Dentalphobia.co.uk also governs certification scheme for UK dentists who gained adequate knowledge and experience for treating nervous patients. To search for a certified practitioner in your area, please visit the dentist-finder page Dentalphobia.co.uk.
Fear of visiting dentist
It is important to understand the roots of dental phobia instead of ignoring it and avoiding visiting the dentist. In some cases, powerful environment sights, sounds and smells associated with dentistry could be provoking feelings of real anxiety and panic. Most of the time, the adult phobia and apprehensive behaviour could be created or influenced by a subconscious long-distant childhood memory to influence their behaviour as an adult.
There are ways to help the patients to control their anxiety and to manage their phobia. The type or classification of dental phobia could help both the dentist and patient understand what is causing and driving deep-seated dental phobia and nervousness. Based on these classifications, the type of help a patient need could be identified. As opposed to a dental phobia, people with dental fear have a clear understanding of their anxiety and a rational reason for not attending their dentist.
Although dental Phobia is similar to dental fear but more severe, often associated with bad past experiences. Therefore, understanding and classifying the type of fear is a good approach to address the issue.
The Symptoms
During a full consultation with the dentist, primary symptoms of anxiety, stress and fear of spending time with the dentist can be identified. Dental experience can be created by triggering one or several different things, usually in combination. As well as sound, smell and sight, touch is important triggers for many phobic patients. Unfortunately, drilling inside the mouth will sound a lot louder and scarier than it actually is.
In modern dental clinics, there are no longer signs of the strong smell of antiseptics, unpleasant sights of instruments and clinical environment. In London Specialist Dentists (LSD) clinic, we are approaching our patients with care, discussing their psychological concerns, communicating dentistry at all levels. We will explain all the possible procedures beforehand, so our patients know exactly what will happen next.
In London Specialist Dentists, we utilise the advent of modern dental equipment such as ultra-quiet or non-vibrating dental drills, digital impression scanners, extra-oral x-ray machines, ergonomically-designed Sirona dental chairs to increase the quality of dental care while delivering an exceptionally comfortable and pleasant dental experience.
The Solution
1. Behavioural management: Finding a dentist you could feel comfortable with is maybe the secret of managing your dental fear or phobia. In our modern practice, most dentists are trained to support our patients who may suffer from stress, anxiety or fear during the course of the consultation, communication, or behavioural management, distraction techniques and gentle dentistry. As dental phobias become more widely understood, more and more dentists are becoming familiar with treating them effectively. The most beneficial treatment options and dental procedures are explained in detail to ensure that our patients feel comfortable. In the LSD clinic, we shall already, at the consultation stage, approach our patients in a professional, holistic and empathic manner and connection with them so that our patients trust us, understand and comprehend what their treatment options may involve.
2. To go beyond simple behavioural management and distraction techniques, we would also consider utilising the most up-to-date equipment and products on the market, which can help our patients to reduce pain and discomfort.
3. Additional step for resolving a deep-seated dental phobia could be counselling, cognitive therapy or hypnosis, conducted by a certified professional.
