Dentists - Phobias and What They Mean For You

Dentists are health care practitioners that specialize in oral health. Oral health care addresses the teeth, gums and internal portions of the mouth. Heart conditions, systemic infections, premature birth, diabetic complications and clogged arteries have all been associated with unresolved dental problems. If a person is afraid to go to this practitioner, they may suffer an array of health issues.

What are these patients afraid of? If they are truly phobic, their fears are probably irrational. Phobias can result from a variety of circumstances and are not just related to dentists. People have fear of flying, spiders, close quarters, public places and more. While the majority of the population probably isn’t thrilled to sit in the dentist chair to have cleanings or work done, they don’t experience intense reactions which cause them to not show up at all. Most people still keep their appointments in order to keep their mouths, teeth and gums in good shape.

Some red flags that a person’s fears have reached the high anxiety scale include:

- Bursting into tears when it’s time for an appointment.

- Being unable to sit in the waiting room or see dental tools without feeling agitation and anxiety.

- Pounding heart beat.

- Increased blood flow to the face.

- Having trouble catching one’s breath.

- Full blown panic attack.

Some reasons for these phobic feelings may be embarrassment, feeling out of control, suffering a bad past experience and a general fear of any type of pain. They also may have had a family member with this fear and incorporated it into their belief system as a child. Embarrassment is due to the fact that the mouth is actually a fairly intimate body part. Having to open wide and be subjected to poking and prodding can cause a feeling of exposure, vulnerability and anxiousness. As far as feeling out of control, being in a chair with people working directly over you gives many patients a feeling of claustrophobia. Since one’s mouth is being worked on, it’s hard to speak and state what you need. If the area is numbed with Novocain or some other pain killer, the patient may not be able to speak clearly for hours post appointment, either. This all contributes to that loss-of-control feeling. If a person has had a bad past experience while having work done on their teeth, they may be afraid of it happening all over again. As far as being afraid of pain, who likes pain? Some patients deal with it better than others.

If a person has this type of phobia, there are several steps they can take to overcome it. For one, seeing a therapist who is trained in desensitization may help a person learn to cope with fears or get over past trauma. Another step is to seek out a practitioner who specializes in sensitive chair-side manners and thoroughly understands and even caters to the fearful patient. Finally, some dentists offer laughing gas or sedatives to their patients who are having work done in order to give that extra shot of courage.