DENTAL ANXIETY AND DENTAL PHOBIA

Hello guys, In my practice i frequently encounter many patients having dental phobia and anxiety on daily basis. Fear and anxiety of patients toward the dentist and dental treatment is very anxious to dentist also which is main reason patient's avoidance of dental care.

What is anxiety?
Anxiety is an emotional state that precedes the actual encounter with the threatening stimuli, which sometimes is not even identifiable. It is normally experienced in day-to-day life, such as during exams, while making crucial decisions, in the workplace, and in several other circumstances.

What is fear and phobia?
Fear is a reaction to a known or perceived threat or danger. It leads to a fight-or-flight situation. Dental fear is a reaction to threatening stimuli in dental situations. Phobia is persistent, unrealistic, and intense fear of a specific stimulus, leading to complete avoidance of the perceived danger.
source: literature by Deva Priya Appukuttan, Department of Periodontics, Sri Ramakrishna Mission Dental College and Hospital.

what anxiety and phobia may affect your dental treatment?

• Both dental anxiety and fear rises physical, emotional, and behavioral responses before and while treatment in an individual.
• Anxiety also causes painful stimulus and increased pain stimulus, and thus patients experience more pain.
• Patients also exaggerate their memory of pain.
• Patients Affected by Critical Anxiety also affect dentist's Diagnosis resulting in an unpleasant experience for both the patient and the dentist.

What dental phobia may affect your oral health?

• dentist–patient relationship influence by severe anxiety resulted in misdiagnosis.
• Fearful and anxious individuals do not visit the dentist.
• Which results in bad oral health with more decay, periodical diseases and bad gums status.

How dental anxiety may develops?

Dental anxiety is multifactorial, such as

• Past history of negative or traumatic experience.
• Empathetic learning from anxious family members or peer groups.
• Lack of understanding, exposure to frightening portrayals of dentists in the media.
• Anxiety can also be provoked by sensory triggers such as sights of needles and air-turbine drills, sounds of drilling and screaming, the smell of eugenol.

How your dentist will manage anxiety?
The etiology for dental anxiety is multifactorial, and hence there is no monotherapy for management.

• Dentist will evaluate source of anxiety and fear with conversation and calm rapport and questioner.
• Dentist will uese some technique, like
  psycho-therapeutic interventions like behavior management, relaxation technique, guided imagery, tell-show-do technique, clinical hypnosis,acupuncture, acupressure,distraction.
  pharmacological interventions like sedation,general anesthesia if indicated.
  or combination of both,

what to do if you are anxious to dental treatment?

• Gently breathe in hold and let go.
• Gently pull your toes up toward your knees just a little and hold briefly and let go. Recognize the difference.
• Press your heels into the floor and hold and let go.
• Pull your knees together andhold briefly now let them drift apart a little. Be aware of the new position.
• Squeeze your buttocks together and hold now let go.
• Gently pull in your tummy muscles toward your spine and hold briefly now let go. Feel the difference.
• Shoulders –gently pull them up toward your ears, just enough to recognise the tension and hold briefly now let go. Recognise the new position.
• Gently press your elbows and upper arms to the sides of your body and hold for a moment now let go.
• Hands –gently clench and hold and let go.
• Push your head forward slightly and hold briefly now let your head go back to a balanced position. Feel the difference.
• Grit your teeth together and hold briefly let your jaw sag slightly. Feel the difference.
  thank you.