Expert answers
We know how daunting dental treatment can be. Our Dental Phobia certified experts are here to help ease your mind before treatment by answering your questions.
How can I solve my fear of the dentist after bad experiences?
Hi Dr Pinder,
I have developed a huge phobia of the dentist, and its gotten to the point where I’m in a huge amount of pain due to lack of dental work. Is there anything you would recommend me doing to solve this issue. My Dentist is not sympathetic at all, and always under minds my desire to be put under a form of sedation. He is also very forceful and does not make me feel comfortable when undergoing even a check-up, I even recall him putting his knee on my chest preventing me from getting up due to pain. This has totally put me off going to the dentist completely despite desperately needing work on deep cavities and multiple possible root canal infections.
Any advice greatly appreciated, Thanks.
First of all if you have these strong negative feelings about your dentist , then you should change dentist . You will never be happy with this one .
Look on www.dentalfearcentral.org for dentists who people have had successful experiences with .
There are nice dentists who will listen , and you should look for someone who offers sedation as a start .
However your recollection of a dentist putting his knee on your chest sounds like quite an extreme form of post truamatic dental stress disorder , and is unlikely to ever happen again
