How a general dentist can help you fight your dental fears
Fears of dental checkups are perfectly normal and something that a general dentist deals with on a daily basis. We have discovered that the best way to fight fear is to give you tools to understand the fear and come up with ways to overcome them. Three things that work well to help take away concerns you may have about a dentist visit are as follows. First, you need to identify what exactly it is that you are afraid of. When you know what you are afraid of, it takes away the overbearing concern of the dentist office. Some people are afraid of needles, others have a fear that the visit will cause them pain, and still others are reluctant to give up control as they may have to do in a dental chair. Once we isolate a fear, we can work with or around it to make sure you are comfortable. Second, you should work with us to educate yourself about the things we do, the vast lengths we go through to ensure your safety and comfort, and understand the procedures from a layman’s perspective. A general dentist is happy to explain and educate any dental procedures. We understand that the more you know, the less likely you are to be afraid. Finally, a tough one for many, we ask our patients to get into the habit of seeing the general dentist at least two times each year for regularly scheduled examinations and cleanings. This builds up a level of familiarity, which also takes away fear and creates a relationship of trust between you and your dentist that we can build on should you need something more intense than plaque removal.
