How I conquered my fear of the dentist
Terrified by the prospect of dental surgery? Don't worry, says Lisa Jewell

None of us exactly look forward to visiting the dentist but for some people, it is a source of huge anxiety. Readers of Ian O'Doherty's column in these pages will know the terror the dentist's drill can instil in patients and the pain that some people will endure rather than face their fears.

These fears can mean that people avoid dental treatment altogether, which can store up big problems for the future.

Dentist Robert Molloy knows all about this. On Tuesday, the Redmond Molloy Dental Clinic on Dublin's Rogerson's Quay was officially launched and he put together a list of tips to help nervous patients. As well as the expected tips like sharing your fears with the dentist, going regularly and ensuring that drugs have kicked in before work starts, Dr Molloy has some more up-to-the-minute ideas.

He suggests bringing your own MP3 player and music to drown out the sound of drilling -- and even seeing your teeth on a TV screen to explain visually what needs to be done.

Dr Molloy says people can generally be categorised into three groups when it comes to dentist visits -- anxious, fearful or phobic.

"Most people are a little bit anxious about going to the dentist and that's totally normal," he says. "Then, if you're fearful about going to the dentist, you're thinking about it a good bit beforehand. But generally you'll get over that fear and it won't stop you going to the dentist. In fact, you'll probably think afterwards, 'That wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be'.

"Then there are people who are phobic and plainly avoid going to the dentist. For them, the phobia becomes very much a self-fulfilling prophecy. In other words, you get a pain but you ignore it and say I don't want to go to the dentist.

"Then the pain gets a little bit worse and you take painkillers or go to the doctor to get antibiotics. Eventually, you'll end up at the dentist and the problem is that by the time you get there, the problem has gone from being something that should be relatively straightforward to something that might need more work or an extraction."

Dental phobia can have a number of causes -- it can involve a bad childhood experience of getting dental work, a fear of pain, a fear of needles or many other things.

Dr Molloy says feeling uncomfortable at the dentist's is understandable.

"When you go into a dentist's room, you give over control very quickly to someone you don't really know," he says.

"A lot of the fear is about the unknown and the better informed someone is, the less anxious they'll feel. As dentists, we're here to put people at ease and let them know nothing will be done without their say so. They don't have to get dental work done during that initial visit."

Anne Keane's fear of going to the dentist affected her teeth and her self-confidence.

"I had a fear of dentists for as long as I can remember but I tried to be diligent about going to the dentist," she says. "But it wasn't easy -- I used to have panic attacks."

Anne, who is 55 and from Crumlin in Dublin, says her fear of the dentist came from her childhood days.

"I remember the old-fashioned ways -- they used gas to put you out while they extracted teeth. It was very much a case of doing what you were told because you were the child.

"In later life, I hated going to the dentist. I had to get some bottom teeth extracted once and my attitude was, 'Do it now and I won't have to come back again'."

But Anne wasn't happy with the appearance of her teeth and, two years ago, she felt it was time to get things sorted out for once and for all.

"My teeth had crumbled -- they looked like tombstones in my mouth. I was working in a job where I met the public, which wasn't ideal with my teeth looking so bad. I talked with my hand in front of my mouth and I didn't smile at all.

"Then my sister told me about a local dentist who she said was very good, so I rang the receptionist and she encouraged me to come in. I met the dentist, who was really easy to talk to."

Anne had some remedial work done including fillings, root canal work and bridges.

"Nowadays, I don't mind smiling and people say that I've become more assertive. I wish that I did it years ago but, then again, we didn't have the dentists that we have today. But I'm so glad I got over my fear. To me, it feels like I've conquered Everest."

Another person who has put his fear behind him is 35-year-old Damien Kavanagh from Drogheda.

Apart from one visit to the dentist five years ago, he hadn't been near a dental clinic since primary school.

But by January of this year, Damien was getting worried about his teeth.

"There was a build-up of plaque and my gums were bleeding. Something wasn't right and then I saw an item on the television about how dentists were very different in their approach nowadays.

"I contacted the dentist who was on the TV and made an appointment. He put me at ease straight away. We chatted for a while and then he took some X-rays and a few photos of my teeth.

"I thought my teeth were so bad that I'd need extractions but I didn't need any. I had a couple of fillings and that was it.

"It makes such a difference when someone talks you through what's going to happen and what your options are."

- Lisa Jewell

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