Tips: Helping Patients with a Dental Phobia

Many of us have specific fears – for example, of spiders, enclosed spaces, or heights. However, we can often easily avert the object of our fear and so the phobia does not have to cripple our quality of life. It’s a different situation for people who fear visiting the dentist, as the condition of their teeth can be at stake. If you are a dentist, here are numerous ways in which you can help to keep any overly anxious patients at ease.

Talk about the comfort of modern dental surgeries

One major obstacle to helping someone to overcome dental phobia is that, as they are less likely than the average patient to even enter your practice, you might not even make sufficient contact with them to be able to reassure them. However, if you do come into contact with them, whether in or outside your practice, you can say several things…

You could, to begin with, communicate that your practice is not a scary, intimidating place. Some people could avoid a dental appointment due to bad memories of one in the past – but those memories are probably from a time when dental surgeries were less pleasant. Karen Coates, a dental advisor at the British Dental Health Foundation, points out: “Modern dental surgeries are much friendlier environments, with flowers in the waiting room, art on the walls, a pleasant reception area and polite staff.”

Show a lot of understanding and patience

However, it’s not just about what you say to a patient – it’s also about what they say to you. They might tell you about their anxiety right at the start of the appointment – in which case, that’s your signal to be especially careful and patient with them. You could give the patient time to look around the surgery and meet the staff before you start carrying out your dental duties – and, when that moment comes, allow the patient to keep a friend with them throughout the appointment, should they wish.

Use the right equipment to further allay fears

Many people whose dental phobias originated during childhood could be pleasantly surprised by the sights and sounds when they enter a modern practice. Coates explains: “Most people who are scared of the dentist have bad memories from childhood of the smells and sounds of the surgery”. She says that, these days, “you’ll still have the smells and sounds of the dental surgery but these are less noticeable than they used to be with instruments hidden from sight”. She notes: “Even drills aren’t as noisy as they used to be”.

Getting hold of suitable equipment is certainly easier with us at BF Mulholland at hand. For example, continuing on from Coates’ comments, we stock no shortage of drills that have been built for both effectiveness for the dentist and comfort for the patient. You could also keep an eye out for new products that arrive in our stock; such products could come with fresh technology helpful for relieving patient fears even further.