For patients who cannot overcome dental phobia or anxiety, Junior&Family Dental Clinics offers specialized psychological counseling services for adults or children!
Dental phobia and anxiety
For most people, but especially for children, dental treatment is associated with painful procedures, fear and anxiety. Children's response to pain is complex and is influenced by a number of psychological factors.
Especially at the age of 1 year and six months to 2 years, children are extremely sensitive to pain. Preschoolers and school children younger than 11-12 years usually cannot differentiate between pain-discomfort and pain-touch. It is only around the age of 12, when children develop the ability to think abstractly, that their reaction to pain is similar to that of an adult. Also, at this age, most children are able to take full responsibility for whether or not to use local analgesia.
Painful procedures cause fear and anxiety, and these increase the sensation of pain. That is why, at Junior&Family Dental Clinics, we have created an atmosphere inside the dental office that inspires confidence, we use appropriate pharmacological techniques to control and reduce pain and anxiety, to eliminate the discomfort of dental treatment.
The child patient, confident and relaxed in the dental chair, is the essential condition for successful treatment in pediatric dentistry. Frequently, some of the child patients go to the dental office with hesitation, fear or anxiety, often associating this visit with unpleasant dental experiences told by other family members.
In these conditions, the dentist, through a good psychological preparation in the approach to the small patient, represents a fundamental chance in terms of the subsequent attitude of the child patient towards the dental therapeutic act.
Dental phobia and anxiety in adults
Fear of the doctor is common, but some people are afraid of the dentist, so much so that they endlessly postpone the visit to the dentist. Most dental procedures are not painful, but for people with a phobia of the dentist, even a simple examination can cause panic and to avoid the dental office, such a person faces pain, gum disease and even broken or decayed teeth alone.
Dental phobia and anxiety are very common and are among the main reasons why visits to the dentist are avoided. We must distinguish between "anxiety" and "phobia": people with dental anxiety feel uneasiness or embarrassment before going to the dentist, they exaggerate the fear without a real reason, while dental phobia is a more serious condition, an intense fear, manifested by panic attacks.
There is no well-established limit that separates "normal" anxiety from phobia, but the fear of the dentist does not have to affect our lives. Phobia of the dentist can lead to an increased risk of gum disease and premature tooth loss.
Avoiding the dentist also has effects on the psyche. Discolored or decayed teeth can make a person lose self-confidence, feel insecure about their physical appearance, smile less or open their mouth only partially when speaking.
Symptoms of the phobia include:
- restlessness and insomnia the night before the dental check-up;
- panic attacks or experiencing breathing problems when dental instruments are inserted into the mouth;
- nervousness in the waiting room;
- the image of dental instruments or the white coat increases anxiety;
Phobia and anxiety occur for various reasons, the most common being:
- Pain – Fear of pain may be the result of past unpleasant experiences before most painless dental procedures occur;
- Feeling helpless or out of control – In the dental chair, patients are asked to remain still. The patient feels helpless and out of control, which increases the anxiety (the phobia is also anxiety about the plane).
- Embarrassment, awkwardness – The mouth is a very intimate part of the body. Some people feel too ashamed or embarrassed to let a stranger look inside their mouth. In addition, dental treatments require physical proximity and this can cause anxiety and discomfort.
- Past Unpleasant Experiences – Anyone who has experienced pain or discomfort during dental procedures can become anxious and dread their next appointment.
