A new study conducted by the University of Madrid has highlighted the fact that adults may be unconsciously transmitting their dentist fear to their family.
Fear of visiting the dentist is very common in children and numerous studies have already identified the role parents have played in exacerbating this primal fear. The study has identified the fathers role as just as relevant in establishing a long-term fear. This fear can prevent patients from seeking out the necessary dental work they need or from undergoing cosmetic treatments they might want.
The study published in the International Journal of Pediatric Dentistry, confirmed that if one member of the family had high anxiety levels in relation to the dentist, then the rest of the family would also have higher levels of anxiety. That is to say, fear levels were linked between father, mother and the children.
This study also established that fathers were a more mediatory variable and this assisted in transmitting the fear from mother to child; probably because they emphasized the fear in the mother.
The researchers announced that children may be paying more attention to the emotional reactions of their father when accumulating an understanding of whether a particular dentist visit is potentially stressful or not. They essentially are looking up to their fathers to decide stress levels.
Hence, the study finds that when a mother visits the dentist, the level of “fear of the dentist’ is passed down to her children in varying degrees depending on the reactions of the father.
The findings imply that both parents should be involved in protocols and systems to eliminate dental phobia to prevent such phobias in children.
Perfect Smile Studios will make you feel at ease
Dental Phobia is not uncommon. Indeed we see patients with such fears regularly and have helped them overcome their phobia and achieve the dental objectives they wanted. There are now numerous ways to combat dental anxiety.
At the Perfect Smile Studios, we are highly attuned to people with dental phobia. We have already established numerous aids and desensitization techniques to help those people who would like comprehensive dentistry but find it difficult to go to their dentist.
Other techniques that we use include :
Tell – Show – Do: This involves telling the patient what we are going to do, showing the patient what we are going to do than performing the activity. This way the patient anticipates what we will do and also has no surprises, thus reducing fear.
Mentor: We demonstrate how other patients have been helped with our techniques by introducing patients to other who had a similar phobia and how they have become not only comfortable in visiting the practice but also enjoy coming.
Baby Steps: We build confidence by ensuring every visit is a happy visit by starting with the simplest of treatments and or demonstrations and slowly building on this with every subsequent visit.
Finally showing praise with words and gifts reinforces every time advances have been made in being moving to the next step with treatment. So our friendly team is very supportive in every step during every appointment.
We have established some helpful protocols and will discuss these with you before any treatment is recommended. Read more about how we help our nervous patients.
We have experienced cosmetic dentists who understand what it is like to have deep fears where you feel like you have lost all control. We understand that feeling of not easily being able to trust but still needing and wanting to have improvements in your mouth.
We want you to be able to enjoy your perfect smile and be confident with your teeth. Let us help you.
Related Post
EASE YOUR DENTAL FEARS WITH ORAL SEDATION
As much as we enjoy seeing patients every day, we recognize that not everyone looks forward to visiting the dentist. In fact, according to recent studies, 75% of those surveyed have at least some fear of the dentist.
And 10 to 15% of people have such a large fear that it prevents them from seeing the dentist at all! Fear of the dentist can affect whole families’ healthcare.