How to cope with dental anxiety

Are you someone who worries about the dentist? Do you spend weeks in discomfort before you eventually book in to come and see us?

Well, we at Nailsea Dental Practice want to help you start out on a better journey with our dentist in Nailsea. We understand that dental surgery can be a scary place for plenty of people, and there are lots of different reasons why people develop a bad relationship with dentistry in the first place, but we want people to know there’s a chance for a better story with us.

What is dental anxiety?

Dental anxiety is what we call the feeling you get of worry or discomfort at the thought of going to the dentist. Lots of people get it, and it’s totally understandable – nobody likes having their body fiddled with and looked at, especially when it’s an area as sensitive as your teeth and gums. However, the importance of regular check-ups can sometimes be missed, and people don’t always appreciate the implications of not visiting our dentist in Nailsea regularly. If you don’t see a dentist, then very often, your teeth are left to develop a whole heap of issues that we don’t know about and could be easily avoided, such as gum disease or decay. Although dental anxiety is a serious worry and something you need to tackle, losing your teeth is even more serious as it can have major long-term health consequences.

How can we help?

The first thing we ask all patients with dental worries to do is to cast their minds back to a time when they think their anxiety might have begun. Was it always there, or did it develop later on for a specific reason? Try to really dig deep into what you think the cause could have been. In order to move forward with our dentist in Nailsea, it’s important to name and understand where your worries are coming from so we can get to the root of the issue and heal properly rather than just plastering over with external coping mechanisms. We find that when patients really start to dig deep, in most cases, their fears are born from those around them and don’t even directly belong to them.

Practical tools

When you begin your journey, it’s important to walk before you run and try putting practical tools in place to make going to the dentist a little bit easier. An example of this would be coming to the practice ahead of the appointment in order to get familiar with your surroundings, or you could book an early morning appointment slot so you aren’t waiting around anxious all day ahead of your appointment.

Beyond these bigger tools, you can also bring along headphones or an eye mask to help relax you during the check-up, and of course, you can always bring a friend or loved one with you in order to have a friendly face in the room. We, at the practice, welcome friends and family with no problem at all.