 For some people, their fear
or phobia of the dentist is so great it prevents them from attending the practice for dental treatment. Such
fearful and anxious patients may need to overcome these fears with relaxation or sedation.
You can be helped to feel relaxed by relative analgesia, sometimes known as inhalation sedation. Or the dentist can give you sedative medicine, either by mouth in tablet or liquid form or as an injection. You become drowsy and unaware of any treatment but will still be able to co-operate with the dentist.
To book an appointment
please call 01903 754 224 or
Distraction techniques
for dental fear
Being nervous of afraid of the
dentist comes in varying degrees of severity, some people
are simply nervous of sitting in the chair, while others
feel so phobic that they are unable to enter the practice
altogether. We have found that often the fearful and anxious
people have found that there is a 'trigger' that sets their
anxiety off, and this is where distraction techniques come
in useful. When you sit in the chair, it is a good idea to start to let your mind drift to
a happy and relaxing place - picture it now, perhaps a beach, your favourite
hotel or some other place that helps you relax.Picture what you can see there now, look around you notice the people that are
there with you. Now notice the sounds, the smell and even the taste that goes
with this place, if there is one.When you are totally relaxed now, touch your index finger and thumb together to
create and 'anchor', this then becomes your way to distract yourself quickly
when you feel you are becoming nervous at the dentist. So next practice this
again now, relax, picture, see who's there, smell the smells, taste the tastes
and then touch your fingers together.
Practice this a few times so you can enter your state of relaxation quicker and
quicker, so that when you come to see us you can simply sit in the chair, touch
your fingers together and relax... simple
What else can be done to
help overcome dental anxiety?
We
will always spend time talking to you to help you relax, and
can offer you extra aids to assist this process, the
simplest one of these is what we call 'happy gas' or
inhalation sedation. This process allows you to breath a gas
(similar to the one they use for pain relief in child birth
and ambulances) which helps you to relax.
Inhalation
sedation, formally known as R.A Sedation is a great
technique as the effects are fast acting, and wear off
quickly often allowing you to return to work after treatment
if necessary.
What if I
am really phobic of the dentist?
In some
cases a good approach is to use IV or Oral Sedation, this
will involve a much deeper level of relaxation for you and
can work really well for patient that are very nervous or
even phobic of dental treatments.
The best
thing to do is to book in for a consultation where we can
discuss the available options for you.
To book an appointment
please call 01903 754 224 or
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