You can’t hide your feelings

In a battle of the sexes, dental phobic women struggled to hide their emotions. Although both men and woman faired equally when asked about their feelings towards the dentist, women afraid of the dentist were more repulsed than their men counterparts.

Survey data from the Adult Dental Health Survey showed almost half of adults were moderately to extremely afraid of the dentist. With almost 30m people visiting the dentist, Karen Coates, dental advisor at the British Dental Health Foundation, uses the research to reassure anxious patients that they are not alone and that there are ways make visiting the dentist a manageable experience.

Karen said: “The good news is that more and more dentists now understand their patients’ fears, and with a combination of kindness and gentleness can do a great deal to make dental treatment an acceptable, normal part of life. Make sure that the practice knows you are nervous, so that they can help you. You are not alone and your fear will be much less if you share it with your dental team.