A surprisingly high number of people experience anxiety when visiting the dentist and some may avoid dental visits completely until their need is urgent. Often dental fear or phobia can be due to previous bad experiences in the dental chair, or it can be learned from parents or other caregivers. A lack of good professional dental care can have a detrimental effect on oral health, and may ultimately affect general health.

Here at Swansea Dental Practice and Advance Family Dental we do understand that some people find it difficult to visit the dentist and have a number of ways to help make the experience more pleasant and more bearable.

Most anxiety can be managed by careful gentle treatment and unhurried explanations about each step in the treatment process as treatment progresses. This breaks the treatment down into manageable steps that even nervous people can usually cope with. Additionally, giving the nervous person complete control to stop the procedure instantly by the use of hand signals gives them a sense of control and security. We sometimes use nitrous oxide sedation as a way of greatly reducing anxiety and the perception of pain, as well as the Wand which can painlessly administer anaesthetic and is ideal for those who fear needles. We also offer general anaesthesia for anyone particularly fearful of visiting the dentist, or who requires extensive dental treatments. The use of sedation dentistry can reduce the number of appointments required to restore dental health.

Ultimately we hope to replace any negative memories of dental treatment with positive experiences, and once you have good dental health it is often quite easy to maintain it with on-going professional care combined with good home dental care.