Scary dentists

The foundation asked 1,004 people what made them most nervous from a list including heights, flying, injections, doctors, snakes, spiders, going to hospital and visiting the dentist. Over one in five people rated visiting their dentist as the thing that made them most nervous, more than any other category. Overall, statistically, heights topped the poll of biggest fears, closely followed by visiting the dentist and going to the hospital. Snakes were rated fourth and spiders came fifth.

In comparison to doctors, dentists also struggled. The foundation discovered that nearly 10 times as many people (22 per cent) were made most nervous by their dentists, compared to their doctor (two per cent). The Adult Dental Health Survey points to two dental treatments in particular as the main cause of these nerves: three out of 10 (30 per cent) adults said that having a tooth drilled would make them very or extremely anxious. A similar number (28 per cent) of people reported equivalent levels of anxiety about having a local anaesthetic injection.