Dealing with Dental Anxiety

If you dread picking up the phone to schedule your semi-annual dental visit, you are not alone. By some estimates, as many as three-quarters of Americans have some degree of anxiety about going to the dentist. This can lead to patients postponing care until they experience a dental emergency, which often requires a more invasive intervention, further feeding into that original anxiety.

For some people, the fear is so great that it keeps them away from the dental office—and the essential oral health care they’d receive there—entirely. Working with a sedation dentist can help you overcome this fear, and sedation dentistry is particularly valuable for patients who have a true dental phobia.

A sedation dentist can calm your nerves significantly. This kind of specialist is trained in the delivery of anti-anxiety medications, often from a class of drugs known as benzodiazepines, which help the patient to achieve a state of deep relaxation while in the dentist’s chair.

Although it may seem that sedation induces a sleep-like state, the patient actually remains conscious and able to respond to the dentist’s requests during the visit. The patient’s airway also remains open while under sedation. These aspects make sedation safer than general anesthesia, another option for fearful patients, which renders patients unconscious and requires artificial means to keep the airway open.

In addition to relaxing during the appointment, patients who choose sedation dentistry have no memory of any procedures performed. This means no more negative associations that could discourage you from scheduling a future dental appointment.

For many patients, sedation alone will suffice to help them overcome any anxiety concerning the dentist. However, patients with severe dental anxiety may also benefit from some sort of cognitive or behavioral therapy to address the underlying thought patterns that are contributing to the problem.

Don’t let your fear keep you from the dentist any longer! Visit Georgian Dental® in Barrie ON to learn how you can make your dental appointments more comfortable.