By: Tom Jacobsen
If you’ve never had a cavity, you may never have experienced dental phobia. Cleanings and X-rays aren’t really too frightening. But you may have a fear of the dentist even if you haven’t had work done. Apprehension is one of the more common reactions to dental visits, especially if they involve a root canal or extensive cavity work. When your worries go beyond anxiety to phobia, you will want to find some kind of intervention to help you deal with it.
The intervention may come from relaxation techniques, and from explaining up-front and in advance the procedure that you’re having done. Relaxation will help to ease the tenseness that you feel when you think about going to the dentist.
Hypnosis is also sometimes used to ease the phobia of dentistry. This isn’t the old magic-show hypnosis, where someone does something out of character. It’s a process to help you relax, and understand the process you’ll be going through, so that you can face it without fear. Some of those who help patients deal with dental phobia also incorporate tactics of self-visualization, which seems to work well with younger patients.
To prepare you for your dental visit, the person helping you will first identify the degree of the phobia, to better determine the type of relaxation or hypnosis that may be needed. If you are only mildly anxious, it may only take you five or ten minutes to become more relaxed. If your fear is very deep, you may need to undergo a few sessions before your dental procedure.
Those who perform actual relaxation dentistry do so normally without drugs or anesthesia. If you are going through a more standard anesthesia like IV sedation or pills, you may need someone to drive you to your appointment and home again.
Many people with dental phobias can trace their feelings back to bad experiences at the dentist during their childhood. Generally speaking, more women have the phobia than men. There may be additional charges for relaxation techniques prior to your procedure, unless your dentist incorporates the time into his or her regular fee. Insurance companies will vary in covering or not covering relaxation therapy if it is billed separately.
PreEmptiveHealing.com is a world leader in a holistic approach to after surgery healing and overcoming the negative effects of fear and anxiety, including dental phobia. Tom Sanderson is a writer for www.preemptivehealing.com who has experience in holistic medicine.