Fear of the dentists-any advice?

mumm1975 said:

My son has a fear of the dentists even though he's never been, its always a battle the odd times he has to go to the doctors, he gets too stressed. Hospitals can be a nightmare. He starts to panic and get stressed at the mere mention of going to the dentist. When he has toothache I hate seeing him in pain , but I dont want to stress him out because he is a strong and tall 15 year old. is there anyway of making the dentist a little less threatening?

It's not an easy thing to go to the dentist, mumm, and I get a bit nervous even going for check-ups. The thing to concentrate on is that the dentist is there to help people and it is the toothache that is the enemy, not the dentist.

I find it helps when you get a nice assistant to the dentist (usually female) because this has a soothing effect, at least for me. Maybe you could tell him if there were no dentists what would he do? He'd have to put up with the pain and possibly get an infection.

In my experience dentists are usually caring people and try to be as gentle as possible but, obviously, there may be a little discomfort. 

Actually, I find it is the prospect of looking forward to going to the dentist that is worse than the actual teatment because it is never as bad as we imagine it to be.

mumm1975 said:

My son has a fear of the dentists even though he's never been, its always a battle the odd times he has to go to the doctors, he gets too stressed. Hospitals can be a nightmare. He starts to panic and get stressed at the mere mention of going to the dentist. When he has toothache I hate seeing him in pain , but I dont want to stress him out because he is a strong and tall 15 year old. is there anyway of making the dentist a little less threatening?

It's not an easy thing to go to the dentist, mumm, and I get a bit nervous even going for check-ups. The thing to concentrate on is that the dentist is there to help people and it is the toothache that is the enemy, not the dentist.

I find it helps when you get a nice assistant to the dentist (usually female) because this has a soothing effect, at least for me. Maybe you could tell him if there were no dentists what would he do? He'd have to put up with the pain and possibly get an infection.

In my experience dentists are usually caring people and try to be as gentle as possible but, obviously, there may be a little discomfort. 

Actually, I find it is the prospect of looking forward to going to the dentist that is worse than the actual teatment because it is never as bad as we imagine it to be.