Fear of Dentists? How to Overcome Dental Anxiety

By Elyse Brumfield, RDH
Supervised and Edited by Dr. Levy Do, DDS

It's a common scenario: you hear the word “dentist” and suddenly you feel your heart racing, start getting cold sweats, uncontrollable emotions, and your blood pressure has skyrocketed! What is going on??

Dental Anxiety. "White Coat Syndrome." Dentist Phobia. You may be familiar with these terms. The fear of going to the dentist is very real, extremely common and it has a name: dentophobia. In fact, dentophobia was once ranked #8 on the top 10 phobias in the world! Yikes! The good news is that things have changed and more than ever dental professionals are aware and equipped to handle dentophobia.

What Is Dentophobia and What Causes It?

Dentophobia is a fear of dentists that can be caused by many things and can lead to serious health issues. Common causes of dentophobia are:

• Bad previous experiences with dental professionals or dental treatments

• Embarrassment of how your teeth look or how long it’s been since your last appointment

• Active gag reflux

• Fear of pain, needles, drills and other sounds

Dangers of Dental Fear

Unfortunately, dental fear can be harmful in itself. It causes many people to neglect their preventative, routine dental visits and wait to go to the dentist until they have pain or worse, to not go to the dentist at all.

Waiting until there is pain can be dangerous and life-threatening.

If you only go to the dentist when there is pain, there’s a good chance that when something goes wrong (not if but when) and needs emergency attention, it might be too late and your teeth surgically removed. Oftentimes, the treatment usually ends up costing you much more than it would have, had the problem been dealt with early. It can also lead to serious, life-threatening health issues.

Avoiding preventative cleanings leaves bad bacteria in the gums. Left alone and untreated, this bacteria causes periodontal disease which leads to tooth loss. It also travels through the circulatory system in the bloodstream and causes infections, inflammation, respiratory issues, and makes controlling existing diseases almost impossible. It can be deadly for patients with diabetes, heart conditions, respiratory conditions, and those who are immunocompromised.

How to Overcome Dental Fears

Thankfully, dentistry has come a long way! While being nervous and scared is common, there are many ways to overcome dental anxiety or fears:

• Schedule an early appointment

  • Scheduling an appointment in the morning allows you to get your dental visit out of the way early so that you don’t have to think about it all day long.

• Let the dental team know how you feel

  • Sometimes just feeling a connection with the dental staff helps relieve any added stress. Let us know how you feel and we will be happy to work with you to overcome your anxiety!

• Use headphones to distract from sounds

  • If you need to listen to calming music, podcasts, or just want to block out the noise, bring your headphones and phone to your appointment. We can also provide you with noise-canceling headphones while you are here.

• Request Nitrous or Sedation

  • Sometimes just feeling the fear is too much and we understand. That’s why we offer solutions to get the edge off such as Nitrous Oxide (Laughing Gas), oral sedation, or even IV sedation options in some cases.

• Maintain routine preventative appointments

  • Scheduling your routine preventative appointments is important in preventing dental problems. When you come in for a cleaning and check-up, we can catch problems before they happen, and the big, unknown problems are usually what makes people nervous.

• Schedule a virtual consult

  • If you are still scared and unsure about making an appointment, you can schedule a virtual consult with Dr. Do to meet him and ask any questions before making your appointment! Just click here to schedule.

At Pine Cove Dental, we are very familiar with patients who struggle with dental anxiety from mild to extreme cases and we want you to know that you are not alone. We are here for you and our patients’ testimonies prove it! You will never be pushed to do anything you are not ready for, but we do want to make sure you are given all of the information so that you can overcome your fears and take care of your health.

So, if you’re ready, click on the button below to begin your process of overcoming dental anxiety and schedule your appointment today! We can’t wait to meet you!