Dental Anxiety – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

Do you struggle with dental anxiety and fear about the dentist?

This morning I headed over to my six monthly check up and hygienist appointment at my dentist. I can remember as a kid hating the dentist. It meant pain and discomfort and misery. Surely no one can forget the sound the drill used to make. I’d be sat there in the waiting room listening to the drill being applied to someone else and getting increasingly tense and worried that it would soon be my turn.  I know it’s meant to help with relaxation but sitting there watching the goldfish in the waiting room had no effect. I would sit there listening to the drill while it created a mass of dental anxiety for me.

Of course, things have moved on masses since then. These days treatment is way more advanced and much more comfortable, certainly where I go anyway. Yet, if you struggle with dental anxiety then you may not have been along to the dentist for a long time. You likely still associate dental treatment with those old days and unpleasant experiences when much younger. With your anxiety, your fear will lead to avoidance. Then at some point you have dental issues and avoidance no longer works. You know you need to go to the dentist to get your discomfort looked at and to get it sorted. Yet the very thought of it leaves you anxious, worried and filled with dread.

Avoidance is the main strategy for dealing with anxiety. That may be ignoring the issue for as long as possible. It may mean living with avoidable pain and discomfort in your mouth. It can even mean that when you finally build up the courage to make an appointment you cancel last minute. Or, as some of my former clients have described, you may even get through the anxiety and panic and get to the dentist only to flee from the chair before you are even asked to open your mouth.

We know that regular visits to the dentist are important for your health. Yet dental anxiety leads to side stepping any sort of regular dentist visits and that can lead to all sorts of problems with your mouth, teeth and gums that will require a lot more treatment later.

Coping With The Dentist

Whilst I was there today, I was chatting with them about dealing with the fear and anxiety and other psychological aspects of going to the dentist. You may worry about the potential pain, about what may happen, about needles and injections or some other aspect about the dentist. Like all irrational fears, your thoughts may not be logical yet the intense anxious feelings remain overwhelming. Your brain has tagged the dentist as a threat and so the fight or flight response takes hold when faced with the prospect of dental treatment.

Anxiety and fear will always win over clear thinking and so you avoid the dentist or you struggle with all sorts of feelings of dread and discomfort. Your imagination and focus take hold and you start to think of all sorts of worst case scenarios and catastrophic outcomes associated with going to the dentist. The whole time the pattern of anxiety and fear becomes more and more entrenched and limiting. Until something goes wrong in your mouth, you get more relief from not going.

I’ve written about dental anxiety and fear in these previous articles:

Dealing with Dental Fear – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

Overcome Dental Phobia & Anxiety

Anxiety About Dentists, Doctors and All Things Medical

In addition, there are many articles on my website about dealing with anxious thoughts and feelings and which you can apply to feeling calmer about going to the dentist.

Dental anxiety often starts from experiences when you are young and that anxious pattern keeps going so that, when you are no longer made to go, you stop getting check ups. The longer you leave it, the harder it becomes to make an appointment and to go and get your teeth checked over. That avoidance strengthens the anxious associations that this is something fearful, negative and bad. Logically you know that you should be able to go and sit in a chair and open your mouth while someone takes a look. Yet the fear of this, and of what may happen next if you need some work done, is all too much. Ultimately you probably won’t go until your level of pain forces you to face your fear.

No matter what your previous experiences were like, dentists and hygienists these days are adept at making things as comfortable as possible. The technology is better and there are more options for managing any potential discomfort. They can spend a little longer with you if you are on edge and explain everything they are doing in small steps as you go along.

It’s very possible to take back control over your thoughts and feelings so that you feel calmer and more in control over what goes on inside of your own head. Right now, your anxiety means that you feel anxious even anticipating going to the dentist. You can worry about what will happen, any possible pain you may experience or about having a panic attack when you are there. You overthink and overthink beforehand and, even if you try to go through with it, the anxiety takes over and you dwell, dread and worry even more intensely.

Hypnotherapy can help you to take back control over your focus and imagination. You can think more clearly and really know that you can handle your appointment. You start to expect it to be ok and you feel ok when thinking about going to the dentist. In addition, when you do go you find it easier to manage your thoughts and feelings and you have things you can do to stay in a calm and confident place whilst in the dentist chair. You get to enjoy the freedom of overcoming your fear and you get to have a healthier set of teeth and gums (without the constant worry about what if something happens in your mouth). You get to make dental anxiety a thing of the past, something you used to do that no longer makes any sense at all now.

To your health and happiness, 

Dan Regan

Award Winning Hypnotherapist in Ely & Newmarket

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