I know a lot of you don’t especially love coming to visit me, but there are some of you that are absolutely anxious or phobic about dental visits. I’m talking to that subset of patients today (but the rest of you can stick around to help). I’ve been looking into some resources to help you get back on track with your oral care routine, especially if part of your phobia comes from having not been in for a while.
Come visit the site today and you’ll find a really cool resource that has lots and lots of information from other patients with dental phobia or anxiety. Since I don’t particularly fear the dentist, I can’t give you information from that perspective. All I can do is try to reassure you that the techniques I have available to me have advanced significantly even in the last decade. Things are so much different in the chair today than the last time you were here.
Dental anxiety and phobia are both real conditions that affect up to about 10 percent of patients. They then respond with a variety of severity, from simply being tense and on edge during a visit to literally avoiding the dentist for years — or decades. Obviously, and you know this, it’s not the greatest thing for your oral health. But, it’s also not something you can just decide you’re done with and you’ll snap out of. You need a hand, and we’re here to help.
I did some looking around for resources on the subject and I think I came up with a pretty awesome one. Dental Fear Central is a non-commercial site dedicated to helping people with dental anxiety and phobia get back to the dentist, as well as helping professionals like myself better understand what those patients are going through. If you haven’t seen a dentist in a long time, there’s no reason to be scared or embarrassed. I just want you to have healthy teeth and gums, so let’s work together to get you back in the office, ok?
Source: https://www.dentalfearcentral.org
