Dental Phobia

Dental phobia is typically classified as a fear of the dentist. Although sometimes this is the case, it is often the case is that the fear is only of certain aspects of visiting the dentist. This is significant as the people who are afraid of dentists as it were are relatively rare, and thus the fear of a dental treatment, something that can debilitate your health and have all sorts of negative health repercussions, can be overcome as the fear is actually of something else. Many people fear needles, or gagging or something of that sort and not the actual dentist.

Phobias

Phobias are not the cut and dry. There is no neural pathway that makes you afraid of, let’s say, cats. Usually phobias will be linked with things that have happened to you in the past, specifically during childhood (your mom’s cat scratched you when you were a baby), or they are somehow linked with your body thinking of something when seeing something else (i.e. thinking of getting typhus when you see a cat). Phobias are not rational, and while you may know that what you are experiencing is not “real” (like you know you won’t get typhus from your friends pampered siamese), you still feel it, and it can completely debilitate you.

Fear Of The Dentist

There are people who are simply afraid of the dentist as it is. These people need to go to therapy and work through their fear of the dentist until they can partake in dental treatments. It is necessary that they do so, as otherwise, their teeth will start to deteriorate, and the worse the condition gets the more expensive the cure will become. If nothing else, go to a place that will put you under before having your teeth taken care of, there are plenty of options for that as well.

Some people have a fear not of the dentist or of dental equipment or the pain, but simply are weird about people seeing into their mouth, or touching their mouth and teeth. The same thing applies to them as to the folks who fear dentists, just go to therapy until you can see a dentist, or go to a dentistry where they will put you under.

A lot of people have a fear of gagging and choking. This phobia is usually a result of being a victim of some form of violent crime in the early, very formative years. This phobia should not stop you from going to the dentist. You will not experience choking or gagging. You have to speak to your dentist and tell them that you have a phobia like this. Whenever you feel the fear taking over, tell your dentist that there will be a sign (you won’t be able to talk with a dentist working on your teeth), like slapping the side of the chair, or something, and when you give it, he has to let you spit, drink water, whatever you need to do to alleviate your fear. This way, treatment will be more difficult, but at least it can be done.