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Nervous about your appointment at Dentist Meath? You’re in safe hands!

Are you feeling anxious about your upcoming dentist appointment? You are not alone! Feeling nervous or scared about a masked stranger poking around your mouth is incredibly common. From concerns about pain and feeling worried about choking to being intimidated by the actual dental practitioner, there are various reasons for these ill feelings.

However, these feelings become a problem when they prevent you from visiting the dentist Meath for bi-annual visits.

Our expert dental team know how to handle your stress, and will do everything possible to make your experience seamless and painless.

Learn the below tips and techniques and methods to help you ease your anxiety on your next visit to our practice, Navan Dental.

Consider Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

We are not saying you should book an appointment with a psychologist unless you have a severe phobia, but you can change your way of thinking using cognitive behavioural techniques.

The premise of cognitive behavioural therapy or CBT is that negative thoughts influence behaviours. Typically, these thoughts distort reality and are often baseless. For example, you might associate the dentist with pain. Resulting in you panicking while thinking about the dentist Meath and responding by refusing to see your dental practitioner, even when you should.

CBT will challenge these modes of thinking, making you question their legitimacy, and turn crippling anxiety into something manageable, for the sake of your oral health and hygiene.   

Distract your mind by squeezing onto a stress ball

Stress balls might not be a long term solution of combating stress, but they do have the capacity to help you get rid of physical tension in the moment.

There is a lot of energy moving through your body when you stress. You might feel you need an outlet to release this energy, which is where a stress ball comes in handy. Squeezing a ball sometimes helps to induce relaxation.

Invigorate your olfactory senses

Lather the smell of your favourite lavender hand cream over your hands. Your mind tends to associate pleasant aromas to a particular emotion, usually positive ones.

If you feel distressed while having a procedure done, ask our dentist Meath to stop for a moment so you can apply a lotion that smells nice.

Breathing and mindfulness techniques

Control your breathing - people who panic forget to breathe correctly, which results in less oxygen flowing through your veins.

Focus your attention on your breathing and take deep breaths in and out.

Then draw your attention to your senses. What can you smell, taste and see? Redirecting your energies will distract you from the dental procedure.

Tune out the world with music

Plug in your headphones and disconnect - you will not be able to hear the mechanical whirrs of dentist's tools listening to your favourite genre of music.

Enquire about sedation

If you are nervous and the above methods have not helped, talk to us about being sedated. Intravenous sedation is very useful in relaxing you but does come with terms and conditions.

Dental anxiety is not pleasant but relatively common. Turn a dental phobia into a dental tolerance by using the above techniques while allowing us to help change your perspective of the dentist Meath!