If the thought of going to the dentist gives you the heebie-jeebies, you aren’t alone. However, neglecting your oral health can lead to tooth loss and other severe physical woes. Plus, being ashamed of your smile can rattle your confidence.
You should make your six-month checkup don’t let fear hold you back. The following eight tips will help ease your dental anxiety and keep you calmer through all of life’s travails.
1. Remember that Knowledge is Power
When it comes to fear, four primary stressors exist time, anticipatory, situational and encounter. You can ease anticipatory stress by knowing what to expect. Talk to your dentist before undergoing any procedures.
For example, a root canal sounds terrifying, but it can reduce your sensitivity to heat and cold, making eating much more pleasurable. If you direct your attention to your enjoyment of that first bowl of soup without pain, you’ll find the procedure less frightening.
2. Practice Deep Breathing
You can get your emotions under control by focusing your awareness on your breath. By managing your respiration, you can lower your blood pressure and relax your muscles. Best of all, you don’t need any instruction to take immediate advantage.
Learn to practice two-to-one breathing where you exhale for twice as long as you inhale. Start by focusing awareness on your inhales and exhales, getting a sense of how long each is. Then, begin counting and consciously slow down your exhales. Best of all, you can practice this technique anywhere and anytime you need to relax not only the orthodontist.
3. Try a Mini-Mindfulness Technique
Another way to calm your pre-dental jitters is by performing a moment of mindfulness. Before you go into the chair, why not engage all five of your senses to center yourself on the present moment?
Start by identifying five things that you can see, followed by four that you can touch. Proceed by moving on to three things you can hear, two you can smell and one that you can taste. Drawing your awareness to the sensations you’re experiencing in the present takes your mind away from future fears.
4. Strike a Pose
While it may seem a bit unconventional to do in public, yoga can significantly reduce anxiety. You can practice at home before heading to your appointment to get you centered in a calm mindset. Once you arrive, you can practice some poses discreetly in the waiting room.
Performing a cat-cow pose helps to decrease anxiety because it stimulates the vagus nerve, the largest of the 12 cranial nerves extending down your back. To perform this pose in a chair, place your hands on your lap about halfway up your thighs. Alternatively arch and round out your spine, inhaling as you lift your chest and exhaling as you curve the spine outward.
5. Phone a Friend
Nearly any frightening endeavor is less so with a little help from your friends. Before heading to the dentist’s office, why not rally the troops and find someone to accompany you?
If you are married, your partner or spouse can go along to hold your hand. However, if you are single, you might be surprised to learn that many of your friends also have a bit of dental anxiety. You can offer to swap hand-holding duties when it’s their time to go for a cleaning.
6. Use a Guided Meditation Recording
Wouldn’t it be less stressful to visit the dentist if you had someone to whisper reassurances in your ear? Thanks to the miracle of technology, you can create that experience for free.
All you have to do is hop on YouTube and search for guided meditation videos. Have your earbuds ready and tune into an anti-anxiety talk-down that will have you gliding to the dentist’s chair on a cloud of confidence. Okay, maybe the effects won’t be that dramatic but the trick will help ease your mind.
7. Promise Yourself a Treat Afterward
It works for your kiddos, and this trick can help you, too why not plan a reward for after your dentist visit? If your provider is located in the next town over, you can schedule a little retail therapy and hit the shops you don’t get to frequent every week. If relaxation is more your vibe, why not book a massage or a pedicure afterward if you have the means?
Sometimes, the best reward you can give yourself is a little time to wind down after a stressful experience. If you are on a shoestring budget, try to schedule your appointment toward the end of the day and take the rest of it off so that you at least don’t have to return to the grind while the Novocain is still wearing off your gums.
8. Talk to Your Provider
Finally, if you have severe dental anxiety, your provider would prefer to know about it before they have their fingers in your mouth. Please don’t feel shy about speaking up about your needs.
Dentists are medical doctors, and many can provide an anti-anxiety prescription to help get you through your visit. However, because these substances are controlled, they won’t offer them to all patients only those who request help. Speak up.
Use These Tips to Help With Your Dental Anxiety and Tame General Tension
The eight tips above can help to ease your dental anxiety. As a bonus, you can also use many of them to tame the tension before any stressful event.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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