{"id":14586,"date":"2024-10-11T15:03:09","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T15:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=14586"},"modified":"2024-10-11T15:22:53","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T15:22:53","slug":"scared-of-the-dentist-heres-how-to-cope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=14586","title":{"rendered":"Scared of the Dentist? Here\u2019s How to Cope."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Don\u2019t skip appointments and risk your oral health. Try these strategies instead.<\/p>\n

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For Hope Alcocer, the diagnosis was grim: 11 cavities. Inflamed gums. A tooth in need of a root canal.<\/p>\n

As the list of problems grew, so did her feelings of shame and fear. Shame that she had waited more than a decade to seek care. And fear because she could no longer avoid the dentist.<\/p>\n

Her anxiety stemmed from an experience as a teenager, when her dentist brushed aside her concerns that she wasn\u2019t numb enough before filling a cavity.<\/p>\n

The pain made her want to jump out of the chair. \u201cMy pain was an 11 out of 10,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s how much it hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Dental anxiety is a common problem. Studies<\/a> of U.S. adults generally find that around 20 percent<\/a> of respondents have moderate to high fear of dental care. The severity ranges<\/a> from mild uneasiness to severe phobia and can be rooted in earlier negative experiences or traumas.<\/p>\n

The more fearful someone is, the more they postpone care, and the more likely they are to develop painful problems that require expensive or complex treatment, experts say.<\/p>\n

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Don\u2019t skip appointments and risk your oral health. Try these strategies instead.For Hope Alcocer, the diagnosis was grim: 11 cavities. Inflamed gums. A tooth in need of a root canal.As the list of problems grew, so did her feelings of shame and fear. Shame that she had waited more than a decade to seek care. And fear because she could no longer avoid the dentist.Her anxiety stemmed from an experience as a teenager, when her dentist brushed aside her concerns that she wasn\u2019t numb enough before filling a cavity.The pain made her want to jump out of the chair. \u201cMy pain was an 11 out of 10,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s how much it hurt.\u201dDental anxiety is a common problem. Studies of U.S. adults generally find that around 20 percent of respondents have moderate to high fear of dental care. The severity ranges from mild uneasiness to severe phobia and can be rooted in earlier negative experiences or traumas.The more fearful someone is, the more they postpone care, and the more likely they are to develop painful problems that require expensive or complex treatment, experts say.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14588,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14586"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14589,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14586\/revisions\/14589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}