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Dental Phobia
Dental phobia (commonly called dentophobia, dentist phobia, dental anxiety or dental fear), refers to the fear of dentistry and of receiving dental care.

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Prevalence based our experience:

It is estimated that as many as 75% of Dental patients experience some degree of dental fear, from mild to severe. Approximately 5 to 10 percent people are considered to experience dental phobia; that is, they are so fearful of receiving dental treatment that they avoid dental care at all costs. Many dentally fearful people will only seek dental care when they have a dental emergency, such as a toothache or dental abscess. People who are very fearful of dental care often experience a "cycle of avoidance," in which they avoid dental care due to fear until they experience a dental emergency requiring invasive treatment, which can reinforce their fear of dentistry.

As per our experience, we have categorized our patients in 3 different mental states before they consult to our specialists

  • Anxiety
  • Fear
  • Phobia

The difference between anxiety, fear and phobia:

DENTAL ANXIETY is a reaction to an UNKNOWN danger. Anxiety is extremely common, and most people experience some degree of dental anxiety especially if they’re about to have something done which they’ve never experienced before. Basically, it’s a fear of the unknown.

DENTAL FEAR is a reaction to a known danger (“I know what the dentist is going to do, been there, done that – I’m scared!!”), which involves a fight-or-flight response when confronted with the threatening stimulus.

DENTAL PHOBIA is basically the same as fear, only much stronger (“I know what happens when I go to the dentist – there’s no way I’m going back if I can help it. I’m so terrified I feel sick”). Someone with a dental phobia will avoid dental care at all costs until either a physical problem or the psychological burden of the phobia becomes overwhelming.

What are the most common causes of dental phobia?

Fear of pain: Fear of pain is a very common reason for avoiding the dentist. This fear usually stems from an early dental experience that was unpleasant or painful or from dental "pain and horror" stories told by others. Thanks to the many advances in dentistry made over the years, most of today's dental procedures are considerably less painful or even pain-free.

Fear of injections or fear the injection won't work: Many people are terrified of needles, especially when inserted into their mouth. Beyond this fear, others fear that the anesthesia hasn't yet taken effect or wasn't a large enough dose to eliminate any pain before the dental procedure begins.

Fear of anesthetic side effects: Some people fear the potential side effects of anesthesia such as dizziness, feeling faint, or nausea. Others don't like the numbness or "fat lip" associated with local anesthetics. Feelings of helplessness and loss of control: It's common for people to feel these emotions considering the situation -- sitting in a dental chair with your mouth wide open, unable to see what's going on.

Embarrassment and loss of personal space: Many people feel uncomfortable about the physical closeness of the dentist or hygienist to their face. Others may feel self-conscious about the appearance of their teeth or possible mouth odors.

Bad experiences: Dental phobia is most often caused by bad or in some cases horrific experiences at a dentist’s (studies suggest that this is true for about 80 -85% of dental phobias, but there are difficulties with obtaining representative samples). This not only includes painful dental visits, but also psychological behaviors such as being humiliated by a dentist.

Uncaring dentist: It is often thought, even among dental professionals, that it is the fear of pain that keeps people from seeing a dentist. Vicarious learning: Another cause of dental anxiety is observational learning. This appears to be of only minor importance, judging by our forum and by the available research. If a parent or other caregiver is afraid of dentists, children may pick up on this and learn to be afraid as well, even in the absence of bad experiences. Hearing other people’s horror stories about visits to the Dentist can have a similar effect. Also, the depiction of “the dentist” in the media (especially children’s films/cartoons and comedies, and of course horror movies) can cause people to develop dental fears.

Who is affected by Dental phobia?

Anyone can be affected by dental phobia! It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, a man or a woman, a janitor or a nuclear scientist, rich or poor.

Signs of dental phobia includes:

  • Trouble sleeping the night before the dental exam
  • Feelings of nervousness that escalate while in the dental office waiting room
  • Crying or feeling physically ill at the very thought of visiting the dentist
  • Intense uneasiness at the thought of, or actually when, objects are placed in your mouth during the dental treatment or suddenly feeling like it is difficult to breathe
  • At Dr. Sunil International Dental Clinic, there are special technique to get people out with dental anxiety and dental phobia

Dr. Sunil’s suggestion to overcome the Dentist Phobia/ fear/ Anxiety:

Most people actually don’t mind going to the Dr. Sunil International Clinic because our dentistry can be pain-free and there are many personable, kind and compassionate dental professionals around. Many if not most people who’ve suffered with dental fears and phobias reckon that having found the right dentist for them has made all the difference. This is especially true when fears were caused by previous bad experiences. As soon as the patients are here; they meet our perfectionist and get the adequate amount of information to overcome the bizarre suspicions. Accordingly as per the instruction provided by Dr. Sunil his assigned Specialist will determine the best ways to make you less anxious and more comfortable. Post treatment, we have also found people dancing out of Joy and thanking Dr. Sunil for his unexceptional elegancy behind his profession. You can also check the reality on the video testimonials.

Here we take additional care to make our patients calm, confident & mentally prepared before they go under the Dental surgery. With our own experience we have derived a special technique to overcome these obstacles.

  • From the day of the query our expert starts researching our patient’s mental status. While telephonic conversations, our specially trained Dental Assistants comprehend the dental along with mental condition of the patient and accordingly advise and explain them about the treatment
  • Without making any further difficulty for our patients, we arrange the complementary airport pickup service wherein our drivers receive the International Clients and drop to the Dr. Sunil Serviced Luxury Apartment
  • We provide the special luxury apartment including all the world class luxury which adds value in the comfort for our patients during treatment procedure
  • Back and forth a complementary limo service adds additional comfort for patients resulting another mental relaxation
  • As soon as our patient’s arrive to the clinic, they interact with our multilingual staff welcoming and allowing them to relax in our specially designed Lobby
  • Our lobby is not the traditional or particular lobby which is seen commonly in all Dental Clinic. It includes Television/ Music/Computer/ Foot Massage etc. for the relaxation
  • Special and complementary food & beverage services are also available by the butler
  • As patient start relaxing our next step of meeting with Dental Assistant makes their query answered resulting their doubts or phobia eliminated to the maximum extent and post this patient’s meet with the Perfectionist Dr. Sunil Phol who listen to the queries of the patients and answers them to their satisfaction with his immense experience in Dentistry. This results all the doubts and phobia eradicated from the mind of the patient. He assigns the specific doctor required for the treatment
  • To do the proof check on the first day we only do the sizing and preparation and send our patient back to the apartment so that they get time to rethink about the way and described treatment procedure.
  • On the next appointment date i.e. on the day of Surgery, patients are given food beverages in advance. Before two hours of surgery, we use sedatives and anesthesia which makes the patients feel drowsy and affected place numb so that our patient do not feel pain
  • We take every precaution and all possible steps for our clients that before sitting on the surgery chair they get mentally and physically prepared. As soon as they sit on the surgery chair, they get i-Pod to listen their favorite music. This result that they do not get distracted with the drilling sound and with the help of our advance Lab facility surgery gets completed quickly

As per Dr. Sunil Phol, Fear has different explanation Face Everything And Recover rather Forget Everything And Run

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