Worried about an upcoming dental check-up?
At Bramingham Dental, our dentist in Luton has helped many patients with dental phobias to restore their smiles and overcome this very common problem.
Here, our dentist in Luton provides a brief guide to dental phobias and how we can help.
What is dental phobia?
A dental phobia (or dentophobia) is a fear or stress that someone experiences when in a dental setting.
This can manifest itself as heart palpitations, sweating, shaking or feeling out of control. Luckily, our dentist in Luton has extensive experience handling people who have dental phobias and can help to make you feel more comfortable.
How it can hurt your teeth and gums
People who have dental phobias put off visits to their dental surgery, which as a result, leaves rather simple issues unchecked for longer.
This can lead to a higher incidence of conditions such as tooth decay and gum disease, with patients needing restorative procedures and even dental extractions. Delaying dental check-ups also puts you at a higher risk of suffering from a dental emergency.
If you are concerned about your dental health, please call our team and we will aim to accommodate you as soon as possible.
How we can help
At our dental practice we will always make it our mission to be as compassionate and caring to all of our patients as possible. But if you have a dental aversion, worry or fear, then please tell our team when you book your appointment.
We can help to manage the symptoms of your issue (if your phobia is minor) with adjustments such as offering you an earlier appointment, ensuring that you have a non-clinical meeting with our team and of course, allowing you to discuss any worries you have during that meeting.
If your phobia is a bit more intense, we can help by offering you either inhalation sedation or intravenous sedation.
Inhalation sedation involves the breathing in of nitrous oxide through a mask. which will help you feel relaxed. Once we have completed the work and the mask is off, you will be able to go about your day as normal. With intravenous sedation, you will have an injection of a sedative and will be partially conscious. Once the work is completed by our team, you will need to have a family or friend to take you home and keep an eye on you. You should not operate heavy machinery for a minimum of 24 hours after intravenous sedation.
Advantages
A key advantage of challenging your dental phobia is that your teeth will become healthier; fillings will be placed, crowns may be fitted and overall, any dental pain that you may have had will have been resolved.
Another advantage that we cannot fail to emphasise is that you will notice a boost in your confidence; after all, it's not every day you overcome a phobia, and you will feel better about yourself for conquering this fear.
And finally, your physical health will benefit too; delaying dental care can result in plaque accumulation in your mouth which has been linked in studies to a myriad of inflammatory issues throughout the body.