by Jim Gatton

Do you have a fear of dentistry? Does just the thought of having your teeth scraped send chills up and down your spine and cause you to break out in a cold sweat? Would you rather give birth then have a cavity filled? If these things are true for you it is certain that you are living in your own personal hell.

Maybe it would help to realize that you are not alone in your fear. While you may be an unfortunate part of the extreme it is also true that almost everyone has a certain degree of fear associated with going to the dentist. It is a more common experience then dentist would have you believe. So, please draw some strength from the knowledge that you are not alone in your fear. You just need to find some way to lessen the degree of fear of dentistry that you experience.

Quite often additional knowledge will help you to control the fear or at least minimize its effect in your life. It is an old clich but it is also true that you need to know your enemy. And once you know your enemy, whether the enemy is real or imagined, it is much easier to deal with that particular enemy. One of the things that you need to do is learn a lot about dentistry, what they do for you, and how and why they do different things for you.

Along with gaining additional knowledge is being practical with your self in a different area of this problem. Although the following will not work for everyone you may find that it will help you if you try to be logical with your self and deal with the consequences of not wanting to the dentist because of your fear. We both know that sooner or later you will wind up in the dentist chair if only to have a problem tooth extracted. So one tip is to stress the logic of going to the dentist anyway.

You should also call with your dentist and ask for an appointment to just come in and sit down with him for a 15 or 30 minutes and just get to know him or her as a person. Talk to them about your fears and how they make you feel. Frequently just establishing a more personal relationship with your dentist accomplishes a tremendous amount in minimizing your fear.

Another thing for you to consider is to take a friend or family member with you to your appointments. There truly is strength in numbers and it really does help to have someone encourage you and keep you calm. Both strength and comfort of friendship helps us to get through many things including our fear of going to the dentist. You might even consider taking this one step further and asking permission from the dentist to have your friend come back in the examination room with you while the dentist works when your teeth. Again, this is a fairly regular procedure.

Above all else remember that it is important that you do something or many things in order to cope with your fear of going to the dentist. Doing nothing about your fear obviously will not help. And, it is likely that just trying one tip for controlling your fear of dentistry will not make a major change but if you try several different methods of coping with your fear it is likely that you will make a big difference in your life. Just do something specific.

You have much to gain by learning to take control of your fear of dentistry. Having healthy teeth and an attractive smile will no doubt improve the quality of your life. You will also have much less stress and fear experienced in your life and we know that that is always a plus. Please remember that you do not have to eliminate fear of dentistry in your life in order to be healthier all you have to do is learn how to control it enough so that you can deal with your next visit to the dentist.

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