Quite a majority of the people, around 75% suffer from varying degrees ofdental anxiety. Around 20% of these will only visit a dentist if they just haveto as in case of extreme pain or emergencies. It is however natural to feel alittle anxious before a dentist appointment.

This article discusses the causes of dental anxiety.

1. Embarrassment: Many people are embarrassed at the condition of their mouthand are worried about how the dentist will react after seeing their teeth. Theythink they have the worst set of teeth in the world. Be assured that dentistssee such cases on a daily basis. It's their job to help you overcome suchconditions.

2. Prior Experiences: These can be the most powerful reason for the fear ofdentists. A person with a bad past experience might strongly oppose the idea ofever visiting a dentist again. Although bad experience is a valid reason forfearing something, it might be worthwhile to have a check on why you had a badexperience. If your visit has been quite a few years back, be informed thatdentistry is a constantly developing field and old methods have been replacedby painless advanced methods.

You might have had a really bad experience while undergoing a procedure and youhate your dentist after that. What you don't realize that there were 10 otherpeople the same day that got treated by the same dentist with out any problem.You just happened to have a bad day. Just as if you were driving and had acrash, you wouldn't quit driving because you know you just had a bad day and itdoesn't happen all the time.

3. Immediate surroundings: If you fear the dentist, it is very likely that youpassed this on to your children as well. This is because children learn by whatthey see. If they see you fearing the dentist, obviously they would too. Notjust parents, children can imbibe such a fear from any one close to them suchas relatives, friends.

4. Others experience: We often tend to relate to emotions of others. If yourbest friend had a terrible encounter with a particular dentist and cried infront of you for the same, you will be definitely affected by such an incident.Or simply if someone close to had a painful ordeal while undergoing  a RCT and told you and your dentist informedyou in your next appointment that you should get an RCT done, its highly likelyyou would want to run away from your dentist.

5. Dentist's fault: Some dentists remain insensitive towards the patients andthis can immensely affect a patients opinion especially kids. Dentists ought toknow that not the treatment itself is part of their profession but also caringand making the patient comfortable. Mocking at the patient or makinginsensitive comments directed at the patients is also responsible for peopledeveloping hate for the dentist.

6. The Instruments: Some people are driven nuts just at the site of "Thedrill". Although, it does appear intimidating the drill is not actuallypainful. In many cases, you are given an anesthetic which makes you insensitiveto any possible pain. Besides this, there is an advanced alternative to thedrill which is known as laser dentistry. A few dentists trained in laserdentistry offer this.

The best advice to people suffering from dental anxiety is to visit a dentistwho expertises in treating such patients.

Dentistry is not about giving pain to you but preventing any pain to you.