From Taking Care of Your Teeth to Taking Care of Your Practice
From Taking Care of Your Teeth to Taking Care of Your Practice
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Ways to Help Your Dental Patients Reduce Their Anxiety

Ways to Help Your Dental Patients Reduce Their Anxiety

4/15/2019 8:32:06 AM   |   Comments: 0   |   Views: 37

If you are working at a dental office, you now know that dental anxiety is real. Building a lasting relationship with the patient depends on your ability to help them feel comfortable. You need to demonstrate you are an experienced and knowledgable dentist. 

Always Keep Learning

There is always more to learn when it comes to dentistry. You could take a master's program online to help increase your knowledge base. Attend conferences and keep training. Dental professionals can learn certain behaviors to help reduce the patient's anxiety. Ask an open question like "Do you have any questions?" To help your patient tell you what they need you to focus on. Ask specific questions gradually to understand the cause of his anxiety and effective solutions in the past. The transition from information gathering to providing information to dentists or other healthcare professionals enhances patient confidence that caregivers can provide dental care without causing anxiety. Build a strong relationship of trust with the patient. Even with the most concerned patients, the flow of free information and communication between you and your patients instills confidence and trust.
If you ask a dental assistant, they will first talk about the patient. Dental assistants are concerned about helping others and see how the patient's smile changes. And assistants can relieve patient anxiety and build trust. This connection encourages the patient to visit a dentist regularly and maintain a healthy smile.

Coping Strategies 

There is also a way to get patients to help themselves to combat periodontal disease. Proper research on finding a dentist who is happy with him / her will help reduce anxiety. If a patient feels trust in the dentist they choose, he or she will find it easier to go to the dentist's office. Patients can be asked to meet their dentist before completing paperwork. The purpose of comfort in dental practice appointments is to help alleviate fear. Pressure balls are also very useful for this, as they can be squeezed when fear and anxiety increase.

Managing Illnesses

Your dentist can help to reduce or eliminate dental pain. First of all, many patients like to get information about dentists and hygiene when sitting on a chair. You can also ask for a set of signals to be aware of when they need to pause or stop their dental treatment.
In dental clinics, dental anxiety can be a problem. This may result in missing or canceled appointments. According to a Canadian survey, 49.2% of fearful groups avoid root canal, but 5.2% do not fear or are in low fear groups. Patients with levels of anxiety higher than 10 tend to have a greater pain response.
The UK researchers have found that dentists are able to cure their child and interact with each other in a way that is helpful to their child's emotional state of distress. Dental staff shouting is the most reliable way to create shock and collapse during regular cleaning. Conversely, friendly recruits and dentists are good to tackle anxiety and increase child-friendly collaboration.

Extreme Cases

Some patients are very concerned about the need for dental care and can not cope with potential fears and anxieties. Extreme cases can be managed by performing psychological anxiety reduction therapy after general anesthesia.
Roughly speaking, dental anxiety can be managed by psychotherapeutic interventions, drug interventions, or a combination of both, depending on the expertise and experience of the dentist, dental anxiety, patient characteristics, and clinical status. 


Psychotherapeutic interventions are behavioral or cognitively oriented, and more recently, the use of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has proven to be very successful in managing individuals with extreme anxiety and fear. Depending on the specific indication, these patients can be sedated or have general anesthesia.


Creating exercises that help patients feel comfortable and manage their fears and anxieties brings great value in the short and long term. Use proven strategies to help your patients feel more comfortable, which will help you treat more patients and get a better experience in your practice.


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