The fear of the dentist is well known by everyone, but even more so in children. But are all children afraid to go to the dentist? Is it an expanded topic in society or is it a reality? We have to start by understanding some psychological aspects that affect the smallest at the time of going to the dentist for the first time and more when they have to undergo dental treatments.
Is it normal for it to happen? We must bear in mind that fear and anxiety are normal reactions, part of child development. The age of children is one of the most important factors of their behavior in the dental practice, so it is important to go to a pediatric dentist, a professional who knows firsthand the fears and fears of each age to act as is due in each case.
Childhood fear has a series of reactions that are absolutely normal due to its still not adapting to different situations, either because they are directly threatening or because they are associated with threatening stimuli. This means that in all fear there is a “real” or logical part but there may also be another “imaginary” that oversize’s the existing danger. Generally, the term “dental fear” refers to moderate tension before and during treatment but does not make you unable to receive dental care. In case of aggravating the fear it becomes considered “dental anxiety”, when the apprehension is deeper, or “dental phobia” in the cases in which it makes dental care impossible.
The dental situation is a situation that cannot be compared to most everyday situations, as there is usually no such reluctance. There are some dental processes that can cause pain or other unpleasant experiences. Fear or anxiety responses will adapt to previous experiences proportional to the real danger. When this is the case, we consider the situation as normal, but when they are too intense and incapacitate the individual to receive treatment, we will consider his behavior as phobic.
Normally the “dental fear” calms down over the years but it will also depend on the good performance of the dentists, who must have rhetorical capabilities and sufficient resources to defuse the situation as much as possible. In this sense, the professionals of Dental Clinics identify the factors that contribute to increase the fear to predict which children may have problems and to be able to design adapted forms of treatment. The vision of the instruments and the vibratory sounds are some elements that tend to enhance fear, so we will try to avoid them whenever possible and we think it.