Many people take pride in their dental health. While it’s an essential part of everyone’s self-esteem, it’s also crucial for their overall physical health. But sometimes, unforeseen circumstances may happen that can lead to much deteriorated dental health. One of these circumstances can lead to the dire need for teeth extraction.
The extraction of teeth is a challenging topic for some people. A staggering number of American adults (75%) are scared of visiting their local dentist and getting a tooth extracted. This can be problematic because a loose tooth, especially one caused by accident, can lead to various infections in the teeth.
Here are reasons people fear the dentist.
1. The Imagined Pain
People tend to be afraid of pain, and that’s normal! However, associating pain with any visit to the dentist, even if it’s just a check-up, can certainly be problematic.
Visiting the dentist is an integral part of our physical health, and the more we avoid our visit, the more we are likely to develop dental problems. Furthermore, most dentists offer anesthesia for tooth extraction operations. Some of them can even operate while you’re sedated.
Most experts believe that this is more of the perceived pain people have when they think of the dentist. But there’s a considerable chance that you won’t experience much pain during your operation, and you should be back to your everyday life as soon as possible.
2. Seniority
Believe it or not, but the person’s age can highly affect their visits to the dentist. Some seniors might start to develop an irrational fear of the dentist early on, which can eventually become a belief throughout their entire lives. For some seniors, it might be impossible for them to overcome their dental anxiety.
3. Traumatic Experience
Some older people might have experienced a traumatic experience when they were younger. This can be due to malpractice or because of the pain they might have experienced from an operation. This is enough to dissuade them from visiting the dentist.
4. Self-esteem Problems
Another problem people have with the dentist and the tooth extraction operation is that they may no longer be the same the moment they come out. Some people are defined by their teeth, and we all know the embarrassment of losing a front tooth. The idea of it can send a shiver down our spine.
Self-esteem is one of the common reasons why people don’t want to get their tooth extracted. It’s also one of the main reasons why people tend to avoid the dentist. However, this shouldn’t bog you down because there are also other operations out there that exist to help you gain your lost self-esteem back.
Overcoming Dental Anxiety
If you’re someone who experienced a traumatic experience with a dentist before, then you should consider overcoming that trauma first. You can visit a psychologist to help you out with this. Additionally, you can start rationalizing to yourself regarding the trauma you’ve experienced. Start by telling yourself that not all visits to the dentist are going to be traumatic or painful.
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Anxiety Exercises
It would help if you also considered doing exercises that can alleviate anxiety. Self-awareness exercises such as breathing and self-affirmation should ease any worries you might have. You should consider doing this a couple of days before you visit the dentist.
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Talk to Your Dentist
Next up is talking to your local dentist regarding the operation or procedure that you will be undertaking. Knowledge regarding such things should put your mind at ease. Your dentist can even convince you that visits to dentists shouldn’t be all that scary.
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Dental Implants for Recovering Lost Self-esteem
You can easily fix your self-esteem problems after tooth extraction by knowing that other dental procedures can fix them. For example, dental implants are one of the known operations that can restore your teeth into their former shape as if you’ve never gotten a tooth extraction in the first place.
Planning out your dental implant after your tooth extraction is crucial since it takes a decent amount of time. Other procedures must be done before the operation itself, so don’t expect that your teeth will be back to normal after a few weeks of your tooth extraction. Many well-known dental companies can help you out, such as University Dental Services. Their many years of experience should make the operation easy for you.
Furthermore, if you’re a senior and afraid of losing many teeth because of teeth deterioration, know that you can always get dental implants for them. You can also consider dentures as well if you’re on a budget.
We all fear the unknown, but knowing more about our local dentists and the operation and procedures they do will help put us at ease. Try these suggestions out to help fix your dental anxiety so that you can maintain your dental health for the rest of your life.
