A guide to understanding ‘white coat fever’ and dental anxiety with tips on how you can improve your experience at the dentist.
What is Dental Anxiety?
Dental anxiety is the general term used to describe anxiety, fear, or stress within a dental setting. This ranges from being tense about an injection or the sound of a drill, to being physically unable to enter a dental office. These triggers affect people in drastically different ways, and often lead to delayed, or complete avoidance of necessary dental treatment.
Why do people get Dental Anxiety?
Dental anxiety is real and affects different people in different ways. It’s also important to note that this form of anxiety is very common with as many as 22% of Canadians reporting that they experience some form of dental anxiety.
For some people, this nervousness extends past being mildly unsettling. Many patients who suffer from extreme dental anxiety completely avoid dental treatment, which leads to mild issues becoming severe.
The fact remains that dental treatment is an intimate affair. Procedures are being performed that you often cannot watch, with people being in and around your body. This loss of sense of control, in addition to fear of certain procedures or the unknown is the root cause of most dental anxiety.
What can you do to improve your dental experience if you suffer from Dental Anxiety?
Be HONEST with your dental professional. Tell them (if you can) about past experiences, or things that did or didn’t work from you. This will help us develop a strategy that has the best chance of leading to successful treatment.
Develop a relationship with your dental professional, it is crucial to build trust. The greater the trust you have with each other, the easier things will be for everyone. We also need to trust you. Avoid touching the dental professional while they are working or if there is an issue, raise your hand or motion in a safe manner that lets them know you need something.
You can build a trusting relationship and ease into your treatment by taking things slow. If it's your first time back to the dentist in a while, or something you haven't done before, do things in steps. Even though some treatments may be more urgent, often it’s best to first get comfortable with small and quick procedures that will help develop trust. If you have major concerns or fears please contact the clinic and arrange an appointment with Dr. Hamilton or Dr. Shire to talk about your concerns and dental needs.
This is important for children as well. The relationship built between a child and dentist will affect their perception of dentistry for their entire lives. We aim to take things slow, and ease into things. It’s important to introduce children to the dentist from an early age to start building trust and familiarity with the dental environment.
What can your dentist do to help reduce the burden of Dental Anxiety?
It is important to know that the patient is always in control. It is our job to help you understand the condition of your oral health, help identify existing issues or potential problems, and discuss with you the options for treatment. Regardless of the treatment suggested, it is the patient who has to give informed consent prior to anything being done. It is YOUR body, and it is up to the dental team to help facilitate treatment in a manner that helps put you most at ease.
At Blairmore Dental Centre there are many ways that we can help make your appointment less stressful or help to reduce your anxiety:
Sedation: Sedation methods are used to help put you into a more relaxed state. This helps to ease some of the mental burden of the appointment. Methods of sedation may include: medications (such as ativan), nitrous oxide (laughing gas), or intravenous medicated sedation.
Patient receiving nitrous oxide during treatment to ease anxiety
Injections: The most common form of dental anxiety relates to dental injections. Several practices can help facilitate injections including: distractions (visual and auditory such as TV with headphones), numbing gels prior to injections (helps lessen the ‘pinch’), administration techniques (slow and smooth movements, proper equipment selection)
Procedural: The space and treatment being done is often a lot for people to handle. These stresses can be mitigated by: Easiest treatment first (quick and small treatments help develop familiarity), shorter appointments (less time in chair over more visits), frequent breaks (allowing time to ‘reset’)
At Blairmore Dental Centre we understand how serious dental anxiety can be. We have heard from many patients that our team has gone above and beyond to ease their dental anxiety.
“I’ve always been scared going to the dentist as I’ve had really bad anxiety attacks since I was a kid. It’s not a typical scared of the dentist kinda thing, but it’s losing consciousness in the middle of a procedure kinda thing. That’s how traumatized I was. But since becoming a mom I have to set an example for my kids. I tried other dentists around Saskatoon but nobody compares to Dr Hamilton and his team. First time I met Dr Hamilton he easily made me feel comfortable and explained clearly the things that had to be done.” (Janice H)
If you suffer from Dental Anxiety and have been putting off your next cleaning or dental treatment, give us a call at 306-931-0000. We would be happy to talk through how we help our patients manage their anxiety.