It is believed by some experts that as many as one in three people have a fear of the dentist. It is one of the most common phobias out there, and many of us become afraid of the dentist due to a traumatic event in our childhood that we simply cannot get past. Some of us are more afraid of them because we have watched a horror film in which the baddie is a dentist and they do horrible things to their patients. Some people become afraid of the dentist when they are much older, because of an operation that went wrong, or a dentist who was not particularly nice to them. Whatever the reason, a fear of the dentist is a genuine problem, and one that can cause physical health problems later on in life.
That may sound a little dramatic, but it is absolutely true. When a person is very afraid of the dentist then that can mean that even when they have a dental problem, they avoid going to the dentist completely even though they could be in a huge amount of pain. The discomfort and agony is still not enough to persuade them to go to the one person who would be able to help them, because they are frightened of them. The trouble is that the pain is an indication that something is badly wrong, and the longer that you leave it without going to see a dental health professional, the worse that it is going to get – and that means that it becomes more and more likely that you will need to have a more serious piece of dental treatment. It is a horrible cycle to find yourself in, and many dentists are aware of this. That is why they are working hard to encourage people to break the cycle – and they have found an innovative way to do it.
Dentists are now offering painless tooth restorations and fillings to those who have a very real and genuine fear of the dentist. It may sound a little bit like science fiction, the idea of a filling that is completely pain free, but advances in medical and dental technology mean that there have been huge changes in the way that dental procedures now operate. Things are not what they were like in the 1980s! Now there are many different types of tooth restorations, not just fillings, and almost all of them can be performed on a patient without them experiencing a huge amount of pain. In some cases, it is so gentle that the patient does not even realize that the treatment is being given to them then and there – they believe that they are still being examined! This is a huge leap from where we used to be within dentistry, and now we just have one more challenge: convincing people that this is now possible.
The difficulty is that painless fillings and tooth restorations sound a little bit like science fiction: no one believed a few years ago that it would even be possible, so now when a dentist tells their patient that they could have a filling completely painlessly, they simply are not believed! But with better education and a clearer understanding of what is now possible, we are hopeful that more people who have put off going to see their dentist because they have been afraid of them, and afraid of the pain that they could cause, will start to come to the dentist to receive the painless fillings and tooth restorations that they so desperately need. Ignoring the pain will not make it go away and not make your teeth any better. Instead, you need to face up to your fears and get painless fillings and tooth restorations from your dentist.
More at http://wisdomtoothpain.org
