If you have a fear of the dentist, it might feel easiest to avoid regular dental exams altogether. The anxiety that takes over before and during the appointment might not feel worth the dental health. Some people find it so difficult to sit still while they’re at the dentist that they might put [...]
Putting people into categories often makes things easier, even when it comes to understanding ourselves. We love to describe our friends as either introverts or extroverts, type A’s or type B’s, or even as those who are confident or anxious. When using these categories, however, most of us probably wouldn’t include whether or not we’re [...]
Having a dentist or hygienist’s hands in your mouth isn’t pleasant for anyone, but for people with a particularly strong gag reflex, dentist appointments can be extremely challenging. Those who struggle with this problem often have high anxiety levels around dental appointments, and sometimes even skip the dentist entirely — an impulse that can lead [...]
There aren’t many people who look forward to visiting the dentist, but for some, a dental appointment is more than just an inconvenience — it’s a nightmare. For people with dental anxiety, even the simplest procedures can trigger fear that could make appointments extremely stressful, or could even prevent visits to the dentist at [...]
The name William Ayer Jr. may not be familiar to most people, but his work played a major role in modern dentistry’s emphasis on patient comfort and satisfaction, and he was a leading figure in educating dentists during the AIDS outbreak of the 1980s and ’90s about how to [...]
