Dental traumas not only refer to physical injuries that result in damage to your teeth, but also include psychological barriers like dental anxiety, dental phobia, and childhood dental trauma. In this blog, we will explore these common concerns associated with dental care and discuss strategies to overcome them, ensuring a positive dental experience for everyone.
Dental Anxiety
Dental anxiety is a common condition wherein individuals experience fear and apprehension about dental procedures that leads to avoidance of dental treatment. It may arise due to various factors such as a previous traumatic dental experience, fear of pain, or a generalised anxiety disorder. It can often be inherited from parents who may have had negative experiences with the school dentist that resulted in dental avoidance and unknowingly passed this anxiety onto their children. However, understanding and managing dental anxiety is crucial for maintaining good oral health.
Dental Phobia
Dental phobia is an extreme form of dental anxiety that causes individuals to experience intense fear and panic when faced with dental treatment. This fear can result from known direct experiences, or inherited fears passed on from our parents and often leads to avoidance of dental visits, resulting in poor oral hygiene and potential dental problems. Recognising and addressing dental phobia can help individuals receive the care they need.
Childhood Dental Trauma
Childhood dental trauma is often the result of accidental falls, sports injuries, or other traumatic incidents involving the mouth. Such incidents can cause physical damage to the teeth, gums, or jaws, and may also lead to long-term psychological effects. Dental trauma can also result from negative dental experiences as a child, and this is something well known by UK residents who grew up being treated by the school dentist. Timely intervention and specialised care can prevent future complications and help children overcome these traumatic experiences. Some people take the negative impact of these events into their adulthood, resulting in dental phobia or anxiety.
Our Approach
It is essential to understand that dental fears and phobias are valid and not at all uncommon. Dentists are well aware of these challenges and are trained in techniques to help patients feel more comfortable during treatment, however they are not psychologically trained to resolve these challenges. They may employ techniques such as distraction, relaxation exercises, dental sedation, and improved communication in an attempt to significantly alleviate dental anxiety and phobia. However, this is often not enough.
At Safe Smiles 4 Miles, our team are all trained to understand dental phobia and employ techniques to support our patients on their journey to a new and improved smile. This training is delivered personally by our founder, psychologist and trauma specialist Kerry Howard, to all of our staff and clinic teams. Our patient concierge team are specifically educated to provide enhanced emotional support to patients with known dental anxiety. We screen for dental trauma from our initial consultation because we know that people who are seeking major dental work have experienced some level of dental trauma – they just may not realise it.
When you need major dental work and you find yourself ‘putting it off’ until you’re in extreme pain, this is often an indication of a psychological barrier like dental anxiety, dental phobia, or childhood dental trauma. By recognising this behaviour and seeking appropriate support, it is possible for individuals to overcome their fears and receive quality dental care.
Effective communication with dental professionals and implementing relaxation techniques can make dental visits more comfortable and instil confidence in maintaining oral health. Here at Safe Smiles 4 Miles, we are proof that with proper guidance, appropriate support and treatment – it is possible for you to overcome your fear, even though it may feel that it is extreme fear. We understand how to treat dental avoidance, dental phobia and childhood dental trauma appropriately, as we understand them better than anyone in the world. You might like to read more information about our process by simply visiting our post about Why You Should Choose Dental Treatment in Turkey.