Overcoming Fear of the Dentist - Health Channel

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Overcoming Fear of the Dentist |

Are you afraid of going to the dentist? How can you overcome that fear? Dr. Teresa Lozano, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon with Baptist Health South Florida, gives some recommendations to help ease dental anxiety, such as getting your kids to see the dentist as early as possible, and seeing the dentist in a more friendly way.

Transcript

A lot of people dread going to the dentist I know so many people that just their their hairs pop up and how do you get them beyond that fear well one of the things that nowadays we’re doing is getting them to see the dentist as early as you know as possible when your children when you’re a kid you can see the dentist in a more friendly way there’s even like a specialty of dentistry that deals only with kids yes and they decorate it with like Sesame Street would you make it fun for the kids so these people are not traumatized for life or for those of us that already went through the bad experiences and dread going to the dentist there’s several ways we can manage anxiety in the dental office by first not really doing too much at once that’s a good offering the patient there’s also some other alternatives like a nitrous oxide the laughing laughing gas there you go there’s sedation option annex and even for those very severe cases some people are put to sleep for that for the big ones before debate what no I do have a question I’m always curious and I’m gonna use me as an example I know my parents probably my mom is watching now and she’s like don’t talk about me but I know my parents have cavities okay and they took care of their teeth yes my brother and I we don’t have cavities we haven’t done anything differently than you or everybody else is it just the luck of the draw what you get the genetics has a lot of a lot to do in how you know you developed a dental decay periodontal disease some people are prone to one and not the other so but but it also helps you know if you have the propensity to have dental caries you need to be over vigilant and know that right and at the cording we go to the dentist more often get your your tooth brushing and flossing a you know to up to par and sometimes you have to have extra supplementation with that fluoride treatment

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