Dental Visits Are Biggest Fear for Some People

Dentistry Today

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There are some people in the United Kingdom that would rather encounter a snake or spider than visit then dentist.

A recent study discovered these results. More than half of adults, particularly women, had anywhere from moderate to extreme dental anxiety.

The study was created after people were given a list of things that make people nervous. The list included flying, heights, doctors, injections, snakes, spiders, going to the hospital and visiting the dentist. More than one out of five people said visiting the dentist was the thing that made them most nervous.

While visiting the dentist was the most common fear, a dental visit was the second biggest fear overall. The top fear was a fear of heights.

While about 22 percent of the participants were made nervous by visiting the dentist, only about 2 percent expressed that same fear about visiting the doctor. The likely reason for this that about 3 of 10 people have anxiety about needing a tooth drilled. Roughly the same percentage of people is nervous about the possibility of needing a local anesthetic injection.

This research shows that the dental profession still has a lot of work to shed the common misconceptions about visiting the dentist.