Do you have dental anxiety?
Dental anxiety is one of the most common phobias in the world with nearly a third adults disliking the dentist and 1 in 10 of us having a phobia so strong that we avoid making visits to the dentist.
Overcoming Mild Dental Anxiety
Mild dental anxiety is discomfort and nervousness at the dentist. Ways to overcome it are:
- Talking to your dentist
Talking to your dentist is the first step to overcoming your dental fears. Make sure your dentist understands your exact fears and work with them to make your appointment as relaxed as possible by taking breaks and letting them put you at ease. When you tell your dentist before they can reassure you more throughout the appointment, asking if you need to stop, or understanding why you need to suddenly stop.
2. Practicing breathing techniques
Controlled breathing relaxes your body and shifts your focus to other things. This is a brilliant technique for all types of anxiety. This technique involves breathing slowly and deeply. It’s also called diaphragmatic breathing. Deep breathing floods the body with oxygen and other chemicals that relax the central nervous system and help reduce discomfort.
3. RELAX!
There are many relaxation techniques that may work for you. You could bring music into your appointment with you, ask to have your favourite radio station on or just have the nurse chatting to you about something, even flicking through social media or searching for your next holiday destination and Saturday night outfit can distract you from what’s going on.
Overcoming Severe Dental Anxiety
Severe dental anxiety often cannot be treated by the steps above – though all of these techniques can and should be used to try and put you at ease.
When it comes to severe dental anxiety we are dealing more with a psychological phobia that is less due to nerves and more due to fears. We can potentially overcome severe dental anxiety in a few ways.
Counselling
You can receive counselling for your phobia. This will aim to look at the root causes of your phobia and will try to work through it so that you can move beyond it. Counselling is free on the NHS for severe phobias and helps hundreds of people.
Support Networks
Dental anxiety is very common and there are a wide number of support networks for people with these phobias.
Sedation
What is Happy Air Dental Sedation?
Happy Air Sedation is a form of anxiety control to make treatment more pleasant for you. It offers a modern alternative to general anaesthesia for most dental procedures.
You or your child can be made to feel more relaxed by ‘inhalation sedation’. This means breathing in a mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen (‘gas and air’), which quickly leads to a pleasant and calm feeling.
Here at Beacon Dentalcare, we offer Happy Air Sedation and our dental team will put you at ease by talking softly and explaining the process to you in full. Although you may feel a little drowsy, you will stay conscious at all times.
Why choose Happy Air?
- It’s very effective and can help if you’re particularly nervous about pain during a dental treatment
- It is a very comfortable experience – you simply breathe in through a nosepiece
- It is great if you want to feel more relaxed during your visit to the dentist
- It is completely safe. You can’t overdose on gas and air
- There are no after-effects – you will be back to normal after about 30 minutes
Is it safe?
Yes. When performed by expert dentists like ourselves, this procedure is completely safe. The gas and air mixture quickly leaves the body as soon as you breathe in one or two breaths of ordinary air. There are also no adverse after-effects to worry about.
Any more details?
We can adjust the levels of oxygen and nitrous oxide in happy air according the needs of each patient. That way we can ensure that you are breathing the mix that will make you feel most relaxed. There’s no injection in your hand, and you will recover quickly afterwards, so you can go back to your busy day after as little as half an hour, without needing someone to look after you.
It’s great for most people, even those with some quite complex medical conditions, as long as you can breathe through your nose. It can make that dental care you’ve been putting off become possible.
Here at Beacon Dentalcare we also think that its great to be able to offer this to children who are a bit nervous to make their experience much better. Many of us remember dental treatment as small children which gave us bad memories for life. With Happy Air we can carry out kids dental treatment while they relax on the ‘magic carpet ride’ with the Happy Air.
