Dental anxiety is fear, anxiety or stress associated with a dental setting. Being scared to visit the dentist can result in delaying or avoiding dental treatment. Things like needles, drills or the dental setting in general can trigger dental anxiety.
Causes of Stress
Dentists face daily demands and a work situation that augments stress. For example, professional isolation, perfectionism, economic pressure, and patient fears are all key sources of stress.
Research evidence pointed a significant relationship of age, gender, maternal anxiety, previous dental experience, and number of siblings with dental fear and anxiety (DFA).
How common are dentophobia and dental fear? About 36% of people in the U.S. have a fear of dental treatment, with 12% having an extreme fear. About 3% of adults in industrialized countries may have dentophobia and avoid going to the dentist at all. Fear of dentists is more common in females than in males.
Dental fear is one of the most common fear, which is classified as a specific fear according to Diagnostics and Statistics of Psychic Disorders DSM-IV. Dental phobia leads to avoidance of treatment, which in turn leads to deterioration of oral health.
Your dentist may prescribe anti-anxiety drugs, such as diazepam (Valium), that you can take one hour before a scheduled dental visit. Your dentist may also recommend conscious sedation, such as nitrous oxide (or “laughing gas”), which can help calm nerves.
The MDAS consists of 5 questions to measure the degree of dental anxiety in 5 situations: preparing for a dental visit, waiting in the dentist's office for treatment, sitting in the dental chair for drilling, getting ready in the dental chair for scaling, and preparing for local anesthetic injection.
Dental fear is defined as a negative reaction to specific threatening stimuli associated with dental treatment, whereas dental anxiety is an excessive or impairing negative emotional state experienced by dental patients [1,2].
Stress can make you clench and grind your teeth anytime of the day, without you even realizing it. Your dentist will be able to see signs of clenching and teeth grinding during your examination. If you already clench or grind your teeth when you're not stressed, this can make the habit worse.
The majority of dental trauma is tooth (crown) fracture, tooth avulsion, or tooth subluxation.
Bruxism (tooth grinding): stress commonly triggers the grinding, clenching or gnashing of teeth during the night. It can lead to jaw disorders, headaches, chipped or damaged teeth and other dental problems. Dry mouth: anxiety and stress often result in a dry mouth, which has a negative impact on oral health.
Anxiety can cause tingling or numbness in your tongue as well as other changes in your mouth. You may need to talk with a health professional if you have these signs. Anxiety may cause you to experience mental, emotional, and physical symptoms. This may include a tingling feeling, numbness, or swelling in your tongue.
Fear of dental treatment is described in both ICD-10 classification and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IV, in specific (isolated) phobias, a subgroup of anxiety disorders [9, 10].
Oral anxiety is the stress effects on oral health. Stress or anxiety can impact your oral health; when you are stressed, your immune system is compromised, and while the cause of canker sores is not proven, there is some correlation or higher likelihood between lowered immune and those nasty painful canker sores.
Tell your dentist about your anxiety. When you book your appointment, tell the receptionist you're nervous about dental visits. Remind the dentist and dental staff about your anxiety when you arrive. Share any bad experiences you may have had in the past, and ask for suggestions on coping strategies.
With oral conscious sedation, your dentist gives you sedative medication (usually in pill form) about an hour before your procedure begins. Most dentists use triazolam (Halcion®), which is in the diazepam (Valium®) family. But your dentist might use other medications, too, including zaleplon and lorazepam.
Talk to them about the different anesthesia techniques and reassure them that it is perfectly natural to feel nervous, rather than minimize their anxieties by telling them there is nothing to be afraid of. Patients are less likely to be fearful if they feel they have some control over the proceedings.
Root canals are considered to be the most painful because they require removing the nerve tissue on a tooth's root. The removal of the nerve tissue is not only excruciatingly painful but also commonly leads to infection.
There are several types of anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and various phobia-related disorders.
Nervous tension, anger and frustration can cause people to clench and grind their teeth without even realizing it. Therefore, it is important for you to keep an eye out for the following signs: tips of the teeth appearing flat, tooth enamel that is rubbed off causing extreme sensitivity, and tongue indentations.
Patients who are anxious about visiting the dentist often avoid their cleaning appointments and exams, letting their oral health issues go untreated for long periods of time. As such, dental phobia can have a significant negative impact on oral health, often leading to tooth loss and the development of gum disease.
There are many conditions we can identify during a visual examination of your oral cavity, even if you don't know you suffer from them. This includes mental health problems such as depression. Recent studies suggest that depression conclude depression is closely related to poor oral health.
Anxiety state: The anxiety state can be acute (reaction) or chronic (neurosis). Rubbing and thrusting of the tongue against the teeth occurs as a manifestation of anxiety in the tense, apprehensive, pent-up individual; it occurs par ticularly when the person is subject to emo tional stress.