Dental Phobia

Scared of the dentist?

Don't worry, you're not alone - 53% of the UK population also share dentalphobia, a fear of dentists. There are many reasons for this fear including negative past experiences, smells, tastes, textures and pain. All of this is completely understandable.

However, as your wisdom teeth grow in, it's very important that you have regular checkups (twice a year) to maintain your oral health and make sure your newly emerging wisdom teeth are coming through properly. By regularly seeing the dentist and dealing with wisdom teeth problems before they occur is much better than having to go to the dentist for an emergency procedure because something has gone wrong.

Fortunately there are some tricks to make you less anxious about your dental visit.

1. Identifying why you are scared - figuring out why you dislike visiting the dentist, means that you can ease your visit by reducing that aspect (e.g. If you are scared of the sounds, you can wear headphones and listen to music)

2. Talking to your dentist - telling your dentist you are scared means that they can help you ease your fears, e.g. they can give you breaks during your procedure if you feel to overwhelmed

3. Needleless pain relief and sedation - as a last resort, if you are super scared of needles or are just absolutely terrified of the dentist the NHS does offer special clinics that do sedated check ups using pain relief 'wands', however you will need to ask enquire with your local NHS services about this.