36% of us admit to experiencing some level of fear surrounding dental treatments, with as many as 12% of us stating that our fear is extreme. Often, like a fear of spiders, this is more a result of imagined horrors than any tangible grounding for worry. But, in rare cases, a bad dental experience can leave us shaken and reluctant to ever go back.
Unfortunately, try as you might, there’s no way to avoid the dentist’s chair for the rest of your life, and attempting to do so puts you at increased risk of another negative experience due to emergency treatments when you’re already in pain.
Don’t let that happen by instead rebuilding your trust in the dentist’s chair using the following building blocks.
Take the time to understand what happened
When a dentist makes a mistake during treatment or fails to keep all pain at bay, it’s easy to walk away and lock that experience in a box. After all, it wasn’t exactly a pleasant one! But, like all past trauma, unrecognized fear of this kind can have a significant impact on your ability to seek treatment later on. Instead, you need to face this issue head-on, whatever that means for you. It might be that you simply need to address your feelings about what happened, or you may prefer to contact the office of the dentist in question and listen to their explanation of the issue. The more you understand about it from a distance, the better prepared you’ll be to understand how unlikely it is to happen again.
Find a new dentist who can fix any existing problems
Bad dental experiences or treatments often leave a trail of destruction in their path, and leaving these unchecked is forever going to remind you of your bad experience. That’s not going to help you forget, and it’s something that you need to overcome by seeking a new dentist who can fix any problem treatments from your past. The best way to do this is to find dentists with a decent track record of dental repairs. After all, the dentist who fixed the poorly fitted veneers of a striking figure like Olena Khamula should certainly be able to provide you with a repair job worth smiling about. Equally, turning to dentists loved and trusted by your friends and family could be ideal for getting your teeth, and your dental journey, back on track.
Keep the habit regular
No matter how successful you are at overcoming your fear right now, you’ll soon fall back into a negative spiral if you go extended periods without sitting in the dentist’s chair. That’s because, like all trauma, your bad experience will once again come to the fore if it’s left to do so. Equally, escalating dental problems mean that a visit becomes ever-more daunting. Don’t let it happen by rebuilding trust in the ways mentioned, and then making sure to keep up with six-monthly dental checks that keep your fear, and any potential issues, at bay.
