You tend to agree with the following statement: "If I could be worked on without knowledge of the procedure, pain or memory of the treatment, then there wouldn't be much to fear".
You do not want to know what's happening. This would hold true for you even if you had a friendly dentist who could convincingly offer pain-free treatment using local anaesthetic only.
Your primary aim is "to get your teeth fixed". You want to be as "out of it" as possible. You "don't want to know" and don't want to remember the procedure.
You have a "gut feeling" that sedation would help you and allow you to get work done on your teeth which otherwise you wouldn't be able to tolerate.
You want to get a lot of work done "in one go".
You need to get a lot of work done "in one go", because you're very busy or because an important social event is coming up.
You're facing a long procedure which can't be broken down into shorter visits.
You're facing a procedure which would otherwise be uncomfortable or on the gory side (e. g. extraction of impacted wisdom teeth, certain types of gum surgery - your dentist will advise you if things could become uncomfortable). In some cases of complex oral surgery, a general anaesthetic may be required to make the procedure comfortable.
You need a little extra help to relax.
You suffer from persistent needle phobia which can't be controlled with behavioral methods. Even in extreme cases, it is usually possible to get you relaxed enough to accept treatment by using laughing gas followed by IV sedation.
You have a bad gag reflex, and attempts at bringing it under control using behavioural methods have persistently failed. In this case, laughing gas is the method of choice, and if that fails, IV sedation is an option. Both methods greatly reduce the gag reflex.
You need extra painkillers administered into your blood-stream for whatever reason.
Your nerves are in very unusual places (very rare) and you can't find a dentist familiar enough with unusual local anesthesia techniques to get you numb. With IV sedation, you will remember very little about the procedure because it causes memory loss, and additional morphine-like painkillers can be administered into the bloodstream.
You need some extra help in calming your nerves to attend your appointment. You have a fear of specific "dental procedures" rather than "dentists".
You've tried things like meditation or hypnosis in the past and found them to be quite effective in calming you.
Imagine the following scenario: you've met a person you immediately become friendly with. Turns out they're a dentist! They're aware of the state your teeth are in (nothing to worry about on the embarrassment front) and invite you along to their practice. You observe them perform some painless procedures on other people. You decide to let them treat you. In this situation, you would prefer they give you anti-anxiety drugs beforehand, because you'll feel more relaxed about the whole situation. You might want some sort of anxiety-reducing drugs during any procedures, because it would make you feel more comfortable and relaxed. | One of the major features of your phobia is a lack of trust in the dental profession, and a fear of loss of control. You've had bad experiences with dentists not stopping when you were in pain in the past, or you have a history of sexual/physical/emotional abuse.
Your primary aim is "to get your phobia fixed".
You need to know that your dentist will proceed "at your pace" and only do things you're comfortable with.
You're very scared of being sedated.
You don't approve of psychoactive drugs.
You're a "take-charge" person who likes to be in complete control of the situation at all times. The success of pharmacological sedation is partly based on the person's desire to "let go" and relax. You may not only be unwilling, but unable to release control of your mind to the drug/s being used.
Research suggests that the chances of overcoming dental phobia are much greater using behaviour modification compared to using pharmacological methods alone, where fear has been found to return to baseline levels. This may be especially true for forms of sedation which involve loss of memory for the procedure (it's difficult to learn a new behaviour if you have no new memories which can replace frightening old memories), but not for inhalation sedation (which does not involve memory loss).
Some dentists with poor people skills may use sedation instead of learning to manage people's anxiety properly. Sedation may be seen as a "quick-fix" solution and pushed on the client without exploring alternatives.
You feel that being offered sedation would mean you're a "hopeless case".
Sedation is more expensive. Some forms of sedation (e. g. "laughing gas" and oral sedation, i. e. pills) are only somewhat more expensive, while others (e. g. intravenous sedation) can be quite a lot more expensive.
In many areas, sedation is not widely available. You're limiting your choice of dentists.
Certain medical conditions can contraindicate the use of certain types of sedation drugs.
You're worried that taking an anti-anxiety drug such as Valium before your appointment will interfere with your judgment and your ability to communicate your concerns to your dentist, or won't allow you to make informed decisions.
Forms of sedation other than "laughing gas" will prevent you from operating machinery - including cars. You'll need an escort until the effect of the drugs has worn off, and you can't go straight to work afterwards. You're "terrified of dentists" rather than of specific dental procedures.
You've tried things like hypnosis or meditation before and they didn't work for you. You may have been laughing or otherwise "resisting" them.
Imagine the following scenario: you've met a person you immediately become friendly with. Turns out they're a dentist! They're aware of the state your teeth are in (nothing to worry about on the embarrassment front) and invite you along to their practice. You observe them perform some painless procedures on other people. You decide to let them treat you. In this situation, you would prefer that they prescribe no anti-anxiety drugs, because you'd like to be in full control of the situation and know of everything that's happening. You would prefer them to slowly "get you used to dentistry" by showing you everything they do. |
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