Painless Dentist: Is There Such A Thing? Fear of the Dentist
This is the first post in the series of the factors that cause anxiety – we’ll dig into each one and look at the possible ways to prevent them.
We all are looking for that miraculous painless dentist all our life. So, I’ve decided to put ‘fear of the dentist’ as anxiety trigger #1.
Fearing the dentist is very common for both kids and grown-ups, and there’s no secret here: we don’t like pain, and our brain is telling us we don’t want to go there!
Come on, I have seen people running away from their dentist appointment – some of them did not even care to invent a plausible excuse! 
Luckily for us, nowadays dentists are much more educated in the matter of anxiety than earlier, and they can do their job causing very little discomfort to their patients. With the modern technology, there’s a whole lot of things the dentist can do to ease your concerns!
It’s very important to come prepared – but you probably already know this, don’t you!
Positive thinking
Don’t scare yourself by thinking how much pain you’re gonna feel – this is counter-productive and will not help. Instead, focus on the positive side of the dental appointment and how nice and shiny your teeth are going to look, and how important healthy, beautiful teeth are for you.
Tell your dentist about your anxiety
It’s also a good idea to mention to the dentist that although you trust his/her professional skills completely, your anxiety may still show. There’s nothing to be ashamed about (even though of course the dentists do know this fear is common – in the modern world so many people have this fobia), but still, reminding your dentist about this may motivate him/her to exercise extra caution, put some relaxing music on, or come up with some other practical techniques to calm you down.
Choose the right time for your appointment
Timing is important – book your dental appointment for the time of day when you feel most comfortable and when you do not have any other commitments to worry about. Allow enough time so that you can get to the practice in a relaxed frame of mind – arriving in a rush will only make you feel more nervous. It is usually best to have something to eat before you go, so there is no chance of you feeling faint while you are in the chair!
Bring a friend
Bringing a person along that you can trust can help you fight the fear of the dentist – especially if your friend is the cheering type! Having someone next to you will help you look and feel stronger and braver, and his/her cheering can help you forget the fear.
Don’t focus on the treatment
Very often during the treatment itself it helps to be thinking hard about anything other than the treatment – plans for the evening, or work things. Concentrate on an important or pleasant event.
When I was young, the dentists were old, grumpy men with ugly metal tools that I hated. Luckily, nowadays the industry of dental medicine is doing everything possible to fight those stereotypes and have people actually enjoy their visit to the dentist: they provide a cup of tea, magazines to read while you wait for your turn, some present free toothbrushes and toothpaste – with their logo, of course – for promotional purposes…
Are you one of those patients who fear the anesthetic injection more than the actual procedure itself? Look for dentists who provide computer-controlled anesthesia delivery systems. In fact, it’s not the needle that causes the discomfort during the injection, but the pressure and volume of the anesthetic going into your tissues. The new computerized systems constantly adjust the pressure, as well as the volume so that there is little or no discomfort. Moreover, the computer provides a flow of anesthetic directly ahead of the needle, which numbs the insertion site and provides an anesthesia pathway, so “patients hardly feel the needle at all.” There also are special anaesthetic gels that the dentist can apply to the area of the gum before the injection. The gel then numbs the gum so that you don’t feel the needle.
