We just can't blame those people who pose their natural reluctance to dental activities. For all we know, they each have different reasons on their detectable unwillingness. What holds them back from visiting a dental clinic? What refrains them from seeing a dentist? Knowing people's individual strides to acquiring such fear would take so much time, and so we have collectively gathered information on what these possible reasons are and summed them all up in one article. We believe awareness is the key to understanding, and that understanding is the key to finding a solution. Hopefully, the list helps.
Before we begin the enumeration, let us first define these important keywords in our basic attempt on making things clear about misconceptions on negative dental perceptions. First, we have anxiety. It is the uneasiness that people feel resulting from a possible outcome that is yet unknown. Second is fear. Fear is also a form of anxiety. However, it forms from a kind of danger that is most likely to occur. Lastly, we have trauma. Trauma can be a result of both anxiety and fear. The only difference is that it is more severe than the mentioned categories - either because of its history's depth or its indelible psychological and emotional effects. In the hopes of solving misunderstood behaviors towards visiting a dental clinic, we have come up with this list.
Anxiety
Majority of first-time dental clinic goers are prone to feeling a certain kind of anxiety on their first-ever endeavor of clinic visitation. This kind of apprehension mostly results from lack of knowledge and experience. Uncertainty gives birth to nervousness, but more to that, dental anxiety may also be caused by claustrophobia, an experience of abuse, a panic disorder or just plain insecurity, depending on a person's experience. Also, influence of other people's know-how disseminated through story-telling may, in one way or another, affect one's confidence in seeing a dentist. The least that could be done in this scenario is for patients to name and neutralize anxiety factors.
Fear
Unlike the latter, people who have dental fear are more aware of the consequences they are about to face. This kind of fear is a product of past upsetting dental experiences that may have occurred at home, inside a dental clinic, or in any other place. It could also be possible that a fear develops from a dentist's insensitivity and humiliation-causing behavior to people who have extra-delicate feelings. This category recognizes a patient's capability of expecting pain or embarrassment - all over again.
Trauma
As mentioned above, trauma may be a result of the two preceding categories mentioned in this article. In anxiety and fear, dental patients experience different levels of stress. In this category, however, patients experience long-term trauma. Unresolved issues of fears and apprehensions in the past leaves a person fixated to it, thus, leave him or her in a limbo of dental trauma. Do you feel afraid of going to a dental clinic? Defy it. Do you feel terrified seeing dentists? Fight it. Resolution must be made before anxiety develops into fear, before fear develops into trauma.
Before we begin the enumeration, let us first define these important keywords in our basic attempt on making things clear about misconceptions on negative dental perceptions. First, we have anxiety. It is the uneasiness that people feel resulting from a possible outcome that is yet unknown. Second is fear. Fear is also a form of anxiety. However, it forms from a kind of danger that is most likely to occur. Lastly, we have trauma. Trauma can be a result of both anxiety and fear. The only difference is that it is more severe than the mentioned categories - either because of its history's depth or its indelible psychological and emotional effects. In the hopes of solving misunderstood behaviors towards visiting a dental clinic, we have come up with this list.
Anxiety
Majority of first-time dental clinic goers are prone to feeling a certain kind of anxiety on their first-ever endeavor of clinic visitation. This kind of apprehension mostly results from lack of knowledge and experience. Uncertainty gives birth to nervousness, but more to that, dental anxiety may also be caused by claustrophobia, an experience of abuse, a panic disorder or just plain insecurity, depending on a person's experience. Also, influence of other people's know-how disseminated through story-telling may, in one way or another, affect one's confidence in seeing a dentist. The least that could be done in this scenario is for patients to name and neutralize anxiety factors.
Fear
Unlike the latter, people who have dental fear are more aware of the consequences they are about to face. This kind of fear is a product of past upsetting dental experiences that may have occurred at home, inside a dental clinic, or in any other place. It could also be possible that a fear develops from a dentist's insensitivity and humiliation-causing behavior to people who have extra-delicate feelings. This category recognizes a patient's capability of expecting pain or embarrassment - all over again.
Trauma
As mentioned above, trauma may be a result of the two preceding categories mentioned in this article. In anxiety and fear, dental patients experience different levels of stress. In this category, however, patients experience long-term trauma. Unresolved issues of fears and apprehensions in the past leaves a person fixated to it, thus, leave him or her in a limbo of dental trauma. Do you feel afraid of going to a dental clinic? Defy it. Do you feel terrified seeing dentists? Fight it. Resolution must be made before anxiety develops into fear, before fear develops into trauma.
Source...