New member

I am a new member of the forum and interested to find out how my practice could improve things for dental phobics- what are the main fearful aspects of visiting the dentist

Wendy Leach
Clinical IT Co-ordinator
Stradbrook Dental Centre

Hello Wendy:

Welcome to the forum

It is great that you are interested in learning about dental anxiety in order to help your patients. There is a treasure trove of information here. I am a psychologist from the USA specializing in anxiety disorder (20+ years). I have just recently begun working with dental anxiety/phobia. I am using some of the techniques I have developed in my practice to work with the dental sector. I would be happy to share with you what I have developed. PM me and I will give you my email.

Thanks again for joining the world needs more dental professionals like you!

Yes it does, .

It's not perfect yet but this is the section for professionals: Dental Anxiety Info for Dentists

For an idea of the main fears, simply look here: Common Dental Fears

If you are more on the practice management side rather than chairside, it's a case of seeing your premises through the eyes of someone who is nervous or scared and minimising triggers AND of course making sure the receptionist's welcome is warm and sympathetic......the worst thing someone could probably do would be to laugh after a 'phobic' patient has plucked up the courage to make an appointment and admit their fear...they probably want reassurance that it's ok to be scared coupled with reassurance that it will all be much easier and more pleasant than they expect.

Offering a 'chat only' appointment with the dentist (which the patient pays for) is something we advise people to ask for, so not being phased when someone requests this would make you more phobic friendly...after all it is just a consultation where maybe nothing dental happens...it's about building trust before taking bigger risks.

Hope this helps a bit. Your website seems to be along the right lines as you do have a dedicated section for 'nervous' patients.

Hi Wendy, we are in the process of setting up a dental anxiety network for professionals, please let me know if you'd like to join (you can use this contact form: https://www.dentalfearcentral.org/contact/).

As Brit has said, there is an overview of the most common dental fears here:
For an idea of the main fears, simply look here: https://www.dentalfearcentral.org/fears/

I would say that some of the most common fearful aspects of visiting the dentist are:
(1) fear of being berated or criticised for ones teeth/oral hygiene/health behaviours/avoiding the dentist
(2) potential pain (obviously)
(3) fear of not being in control

Then there are lots of fears which are more particular to the individual, e.g. injections or gagging. But you will find a much more extensive list when you click on the link above .

I think abstaining from any criticism and making sure the patient is in control by emphasising that you will stop anytime, having a pre-agreed stop signal and frequently asking how the patient is feeling, is really vital. (one stop signal I'm quite fond of is raising both arms slowly, because people may have had experiences in the past where the dentist didn't stop when they did the usual "raise your hand" signal. It just breaks the cycle). Obviously, it is crucial that the dentists are up to scratch on pain control. Local anaesthesia isn't taught to such a high standard at dental school, so CE courses in advanced local anaesthesia courses are always a good idea. There are some resources here which may help:

I also think the environment is very important. I've seen some dental practices which could definitely do with a woman's touch, lol (not trying to be sexist here). Of course, if you have an old practice it may not be feasible to completely redecorate, but creating a more homely (rather than clinical) feel is usually easy enough to achieve - both in the waiting rooms and in the treatment rooms. Some warm lively colours, flowers or a telly in the waiting room (to give it more of a living room atmosphere) never go astray, as does grouping chairs into more living room style patterns (e.g. around a table) if you have the space. I've seen some waiting rooms recently that actually had plenty of space, and yet the chairs were lined up in rows, thus lending the setup a rather institutionalised feel.

Let me know if you'd like to join the professionals' network .

There's another point I wanted to make and that I forgot to mention after getting caught up in minor details . This has got to do with the issue of control I mentioned earlier. For many people with dental phobias, the perceived power differential in the dentist-patient is a real issue.

Luckily, in recent years, there has been a shift away from authority relationships between medical practitioners (including dentists) and patients towards more of a therapeutic alliance model. But in many people (both dentists and "patients" - I don't really like that word but "consumer" takes the caring aspect out of the relationship, so I'm kind of stuck with it), the authority schema (dentist vs. patient/superior vs. subordinate/control vs. no control) is still quite strongly engrained. As a friend (who is a dentist) put it: "I think that the dental profession has 'owned' people's mouths and their voices in a very real way and its time to give people back what belongs to them."

So I think in order to improve things (not only for people with dental phobia, but for everyone), it's really important to eliminate the power differential as far as possible and making sure that patients are treated as equals. This not only involves behaviour, but also subtle clues which serve as signals of an authority relationship. For example, most people much prefer their dentist to wear neat informal wear (such as polo shirts and chinos) to outfits which emphasize role relationships (such as white coats). Also, I think it's a nice touch when dentists come out to the waiting room to meet their patients with a handshake, and introducing themselves by their first name. I've been surprised how often it happens that you meet a dentist and they don't even bother to introduce themselves!

I could go on and on but I think I'll stop here !