A “phobia” is typically understood to be “an irrational severe fear leading to avoidance from the feared situation, object or activity” (despite the fact that the Greek word “phobia” only denotes fear…). Contact with the feared stimulus brings about an instantaneous anxiety response, which might take the type of a anxiety attack. The fear causes lots of distress, and impacts on other aspects your existence, not only your dental health. Dental phobics will expend a great deal of your time considering their teeth or dental practitioners or dental situations, otherwise spend considerable time trying To not think about teeth or dental practitioners or dental situations. That is pretty hard in the current society which is saturated with ugly mental reminders through tooth paste advertisements.

Prefer to be dead than be confronted with a dental professional? – You may be struggling with dental fear!

The Diagnostic and Record Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) describes dental fear like a “marked and persistent fear that’s excessive or unreasonable”. Additionally, it assumes the person sees that the worry is excessive or uncommon. Conclusion? The DSM-IV criteria were clearly not made the decision upon with a representative number of dental phobics. With that said, there’s a brand new modified version being released soon, so perhaps the meaning may have transformed.

This isn’t to express that dental fear cannot co-occur with mental health problems – obviously it may. Dental fear seems to become more prevalent in individuals who are afflicted by another mental health condition, particularly Generalized Panic Attacks, panic attacks/agoraphobia, depression, and emetophobia. Research indicates that about 20% of dental phobics possess a concurrent mental health condition. On the other hand, 25% of British grown ups experience a minumum of one diagnosable mental health condition in almost any twelve months.

The primary trouble with determining “dental phobia” is the fact that there isn’t just One sort of dental fear, however, many types – some rational, plus some which appear more “irrational”.

If the fear is “unreasonable”, “excessive”, or “irrational” is debatable… definitely not should you finish up at the disposal of the incorrect dental professional! Which, incidentally, is among the explanations why people end up as dental phobics in the first place…

The main difference between anxiety, fear and fear

A distinction has been manufactured between dental anxiety, dental fear, and dental fear.

DENTAL ANXIETY is reply to a mystery danger. Anxiety is very common, and many people experience some extent of dental anxiety particularly if they’re going to have something done which they’ve never experienced before. Essentially, it’s anxiety when the unknown.

DENTAL FEAR is reply to a recognized danger (“I understand what the dental professional can do, had the experience, done that – I’m scared!!”), that involves a battle-or-flight response when faced using the threatening stimulus.

DENTAL Fear is essentially just like fear, only much more powerful (“I understand what occurs when I visit the dental professional – there isn’t any way I’m returning basically might help it. I’m so afraid I am getting sick”). Your dream-or-flight response happens when just considering or just being reminded from the threatening situation. Someone having a dental fear will avoid dental hygiene no matter what until whether physical problem or even the mental burden from the fear becomes overwhelming.

You will find other classification schemes for instance, Weiner and Sheehan (1990) distinguish two kinds of dental anxiety: exogenous (in the outdoors) and endogenous (from inside). Exogenous dental anxiety is understood to be anxiety because of distressing dental encounters. Endogenous dental anxiety is believed to possess came from using their company panic disorders.

Groups of Dental Fear differentiates between 4 groups of dental fear:

Anxiety about Specific Stimuli

Distrust of Dental Personnel

Generalized Anxiety

Anxiety about Catastrophy (anxiety about a medical emergency)

The very first a couple of these would will often have been triggered by previous bad encounters (“exogenous”), whereas generalized anxiety and anxiety about catastrophe might be categorized as endogenous. These distinctions aren’t always useful, though. For instance, someone might have experienced a genuine medical emergency previously throughout dental care (exceedingly rare, although not impossible, e. g. within the situation of the genuine severe allergic attack). Within this situation, the worry of catastrophe could be because of an earlier bad experience. Also, when someone is requested the things they fear concerning the dental professional as well as their response is “everything”, dental practitioners may think that this can be a manifestation of generalized anxiety, despite the fact that the individual might not be particularly anxious in everyday existence.

Obviously, people may fall under several categories. Exogenous dental anxiety might be classified as being more “irrational” than fears triggered by bad dental encounters. But in my opinion, after we know an individual’s background and what causes their anxiety, there’s often a very rational explanation behind it (although where childhood trauma is worried, people might not recall the occasions that brought as much as their anxiety).

It is usually most secure to visualize that “irrational” fears aren’t irrational whatsoever, but triggered by very real occasions.

How’s dental fear measured?

You will find various instruments for scientists which make an effort to measure how much the worry, for example Corah’s Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) along with a shorter version, the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS). However, if a person suffers with dental fear, you will not think it is too unequalled our prime score, let alone being scared enough to qualify!

Alternatively, request yourself the next question: “Am I afraid of dental practitioners and steer clear of them no matter what?” If the reply is yes, this is an excellent indicator of dental fear! Even apparently innocuous memory joggers of anything dental-related may create a stress-attack if a person suffers with dental fear, for example people speaking about dental practitioners or teeth, tooth paste advertisements, or “dental words” (for example words beginning with p-, or words like accidental).

Issues with determining dental fear

One trouble with determining dental fear is the fact that “dental anxiety” (reply to a mystery danger) may go through just like frightening like a “phobia” to someone, plus they may be defined (or define themselves) as phobic. From what little research there’s available, this might be more prevalent in those who are generally anxious. Also, many people who’ve didn’t have a poor knowledge about a dental professional or perhaps a dental process could develop dental fear or fear – normally, this is caused by vicarious learning (that’s, hearing or reading through scare-tales using their company people including parents, or media portrayal).

“Dental phobia” is just helpful short-hands for “terror at the idea of dental practitioners and/or dentistry and/or anything dental-related”. Many people believe that their fear is justified and rational, while some feel they’re being silly to get so upset over a thing that “everyone else” appears to possess not a problem with. “Dental Phobia” is actually an umbrella term which provides coverage for an array of different fears. It might also appear that you will find some fairly distinct subtypes of dental fear, for example needle fear or terror at the idea of gagging and being sick.

Do you know the most typical reasons for dental fear?

Bad encounters: Dental fear is most frequently triggered by bad, or in some instances terrible encounters in a dentist’s (studies claim that this is correct for around 80 -85% of dental fears, but you will find problems with acquiring representative samples). This not just includes painful dental visits, but additionally mental behaviors for example being humiliated with a dental professional.

Past abuse: Dental fear can also be common in those who have been sexually mistreated. Past bullying or getting been physically or psychologically mistreated with a part of authority could also lead to developing dental fear, especially in conjunction with bad encounters with dental practitioners.

Uncaring dental professional: It’s frequently thought, even among dental professionals, that it’s the anxiety about discomfort that keeps people from visiting a dental professional. But even where discomfort may be the person’s major concern, it’s not discomfort by itself that’s always the issue. Otherwise, dental phobics wouldn’t steer clear of the dental professional even if in discomfort from tooth pain. Rather, it’s discomfort caused with a dental professional who’s regarded as cold and controlling which has a huge mental impact. Discomfort triggered with a dental professional who’s regarded as caring is a smaller amount prone to lead to mental trauma (Weiner et al, 1999).

Humiliation: Other reasons for dental fear include insensitive, humiliating remarks with a dental professional or hygienist. Actually, insensitive remarks and also the intense feelings of humiliation they provoke are among the primary factors which could cause or lead to some dental fear. People are social creatures, and negative social evaluation will upset many people, aside from probably the most thick-skinned people. If you are the sensitive type, negative evaluation could be breaking.

Vicarious learning: Another reason for dental anxiety is observational learning. This seems to become of just minor importance, knowing by our forum by the accessible research (e.g. Townend, Dimigen and Diane, 1999). If your parents or any other health professional is scared of dental practitioners, children may pick on this and learn how to hesitate too, even without the bad encounters. Hearing the other party’s horror tales about visits towards the psychodentist may have a similar effect. Also, the depiction of “the dentist” in media (especially children’s films/cartoons and comedies, not to mention horror movies) may cause individuals to develop dental fears. Good examples include “Horton Listens to a Who” and “Nick at Night”.

Readiness: People might be naturally “prepared” to understand certain fears, for example needle fear. For countless years individuals who rapidly learned to prevent snakes, levels, and lightning (and sharp objects, for example needles, which will not have been sanitized in individuals days, aside from providing you with an awful sting!) most likely had a high probability to outlive and also to transmit their genes. So it might not have a particularly painful encounter having a needle to build up a fear.

Publish-Distressing Stress: Research indicates that individuals who’ve had terrible dental encounters (not surprisingly) are afflicted by signs and symptoms typically reported by individuals with publish-distressing stress disorder (Post traumatic stress disorder). This really is indicated by intrusive ideas from the bad experience and bad dreams about dental practitioners or dental situations.

The impact of dental fear on daily existence

Dental fear might have wide-varying effects on the person’s existence. Besides their oral health issues, dental fear can lead to anxiety and depression. Laughing aloud is unthinkable – way too hard to cover one’s teeth… For the way apparent the harm is, you might avoid meeting people, even close buddies, because of embarrassment over your teeth, or avoid jobs which entail connection with the general public. Lack of self-esteem over the inability to make a move as “simple” as seeing a dental professional and intense feelings of guilt over not getting cared for one’s teeth correctly will also be common. Dental fear sufferers could also avoid doctors for fear they may want to take a look at their tongue or throat and claim that a trip to a dental professional may not go amiss.

If a person suffers with dental fear, you will be inclined to consider that nobody feels how you do – in the end, cure prefer to be dead or should you prefer a global nuclear disaster by which everybody dies to meeting track of a dental professional?

Really, a great deal of people! While you will find no reliable statistics, probably the most conservative estimations estimate that 5% of individuals in Western nations avoid dental practitioners altogether because of fear. And much more are anxious about dentistry.

However, many people really don’t mind visiting the dental professional. There are grounds with this – nowadays, dentistry could be discomfort-free and you will find many personable, kind and compassionate dental professionals around. Many otherwise many people who’ve experienced with dental fears and fears estimate that getting found the best dental professional on their behalf makes a big difference. This is also true when fears were triggered by previous bad encounters.

Many people ask about dental implants, and why they should consider them if they have dentures. They wonder about the benefits of having dental implants versus sticking with the dentures they already have.

The best and most obvious benefit is the enhanced ability to chew. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to chew and enjoy your food more then you have in years. Dental implants give you back most of your natural chewing ability-up to 90% with 4-6 implants. The painful chewing that goes along with dentures that come in and out is eliminated with implants. The chewing pressure goes onto the implants instead of onto your gums – getting rid of denture rubbing and sores. This is how you used to chew before you lost your teeth.

Another major benefit is that you may looking better. With regular dentures, your lips and cheeks often look “sunken in” and you look older than you are. The longer you have dentures, the older you look. With implant dentures, your face can be filled out again, and some of the wrinkles even go away! The implant dentures are much more comfortable and you can speak better, which all lead to you feeling better about yourself.

Pat Newton was an active grandmother that never smiled. “My grandkids thought I was unhappy even though I’m a really happy person on the inside. I was too embarrassed about my teeth to smile. After getting new teeth from Dr. Jorgensen, now my outsides match my insides. I never realized how important teeth are.” Does this sound familiar? There are 9 million people with dentures, and most of them are very unhappy with them. Now there’s a better way.

If you’re ready to feel better about yourself, chew better, talk better and look better, Dr. Jorgensen’s Implant Denture Methods are for you! You deserve it!

Does this sound like you? Have you been avoiding the dentist because you’re afraid? We have the answer for you! If you dislike dental office sounds and smells, dread sitting in the chair for hours or multiple visits, have problems getting numb, staying numb or with gagging, have teeth so sensitive that the dental exam ‘pick’ is painful… or you’re simply afraid of the needle, then Dr. Jorgensen’s Sedation Dentistry Method is designed just for you.

Deanna Jessee, a Utah resident, says “I’ve always had bad teeth, and I thought I would just go to my grave with them. I couldn’t go through with all the work that needed to be done. Well, when I found out I could sleep through it, I decided to try. I want to tell you how much I appreciate you and what you have done for me. My husband and daughter call it “the miracle.”

How does it work? You decide how sleepy you want to be. If you need help relaxing, a small pill taken before your appointment will help you feel comfortable and calm. If you want to be completely asleep, we offer IV sedation for a deeper effect. With both methods, you are able to “dream” through the visit, stay virtually pain free, and wake up to a healthy mouth and beautiful new smile. Patients often say that it was their easiest dental visit they’ve ever had with minimal to no memory of treatment, and 4 or 5 hours seemed like only minutes.

Dr. Jorgensen’s Sedation Dentistry Method combines “sleep” dentistry with a full range of modern dental techniques to eliminate unhealthy gum infections, bad breath, repair teeth using strong, life-like porcelains and replace missing teeth and eliminate dentures with high tech dental implants for maximum comfort and the ultimate in convenience.

Oodles of Noodles

Cook one box of whole wheat angel hair or spaghetti pasta. Drain, and either cool it for lunches or eat it hot right now.

Asian style - Add 1/4 C olive oil, 2 t. rice vinegar, 1T soy sauce, 1 T sesame seeds, 1/4 c sunflower seeds, 1t grated ginger, 1 t garlic and 1 t red curry paste (this makes the recipe great – look by asian food in grocery store) Toss with the noodles, then add thinly sliced zucchini, carrots, green onions and red peppers, napa cabbage, etc.

Italian - Add 1/4 C olive oil, 2 T. balsamic vinegar, 1 t Italian seasoning, 1/2 t crushed red peppers, 1 t garlic. Toss with the noodles, then add thinly sliced zucchini, carrots, cucumbers, green onions, red peppers, artichoke hearts. You can add whatever veggies you have on hand- broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, you name it. I also lightly stir fried the veggies one night and mixed it with hot noodles and it made a delicious and quick dinner for my family. Serve with miso soup – also one of my very favorites. (I’ll put a recipe for that next time!) Enjoy – let me know if you like it! Dr. J

• Always make green smoothies. I always do my laundry, always brush my teeth (have to set the example!), and now I always make green smoothies.  No debate!!  Have all the stuff ready and in the fridge.  If it’s there, you’ll use it.  I found a used fridge in online classifieds for $75 and it looks brand new!  It’s my green smoothie garage fridge.  I can always see when I’m low on green smoothie makin’s.
• Get your family on board. I’m not ashamed to tell you I paid my kids to drink the first 30 smoothies!  $1 per day.  After that, they’re asking me for it- really!
• Chop veggies at night after the kids are in bed. My crockpot is my friend – I even have two of them!  On work days I make a crockpot meal the night before.  Get the kids to bed and start to chop.  It’s actually relaxing.   Keep it refrigerated until the morning, and plug it in as you leave.  It makes it a lot easier to make good choices after a long tiring day at work if it’s already cooking on my counter when I get home.
• Two week menus. I know this sounds a little obsessive, but that’s how life has to be at our house!  I plan menus for two weeks, so I always know what’s for dinner, and I always have everything on hand.  I post it on the fridge along with the recipes, so my family can help out when I’m pressed for time.
• Don’t do too much at once. I went a little crazy at first and my family stopped eating anything, and complained about everything.  I had to choose what steps I wanted to focus on and let the others go for awhile.  I focused on green smoothies – now an every morning habit,  salads – some incredible yummy ones in green smoothie girl’s manual (and her dressings make all the difference in getting everyone to like them), and breakfast- prepped the night before too.
• Shop once a week. I hate to shop.  Really.  But I get star struck with all the wonderful, colorful produce and find myself drawn to it more often than I wanted!  This one has been hard with all the produce, but I try to plan so I’m not running to the store every day.  That costs time and money.

More to come… Today I made some yummy Asian noodle stir fry for lunch and a delicious hearty Veggie Chili for dinner.  I’ll share the recipes soon.  I’d love to hear your time saving tricks.

The Good, the Bad and the UGLY…

Let’s get the UGLY out of the way at the beginning. There has been a gas epidemic at the office, and it’s not laughing gas…  Apparently all of our systems are getting used to roughage!  Hopefully this phase passes quickly (pun intended!)

On to the Good.  We’ve been making green smoothies at the office every day.  I think some of us are getting addicted, and at times it’s scary!   Some people get the shakes waiting for their hit of green in the morning, and the smoothies are a very hot commodity.  If you aren’t in the break room when it’s made, too bad.  By Thursday, we’re running out of produce, so anything that’s left in the fridge get’s thrown in.  You drink those smoothies at your own risk.  We’ve had warts fall off (Dr. J), running records broken (Jilene), push up contests at work (check out our Facebook for the video), and energy like never before.  I told them they were like a bunch of ping pong balls in a tiny room – bouncing all over the place.  You can’t help but get hit by it sometimes!

And last, and very least is the Bad.  Some are breaking out, most of us are feeling a little bloated, and two of us (Julie and Dr. J) are gaining weight.  That’s not on the plan!!  We’re hitting the water, picking up the exercise, and considering doing the green smoothie cleanse.

As you all know, we are busy working parents.  This has been a little overwhelming to implement, but we’re figuring it out.  This has been the quick update, but look for other posts with ideas on how to make this a Lifestyle change for your family – because we’ve decided that’s what it’s going to be for the Total Care Dental team.

It’s physics 101 – metal expands and contracts with heat and cold. So, you eat some hot soup and chase it with a drink of ice water. Hot, cold, hot, cold. Expand, contract, expand, contract. Your tooth does not expand and contract the same way. What does this all lead to? Cracked teeth. Yep, look at the tooth surrounding any silver filling you might have. You will see cracks all over the place. If the filling is large enough, it will crack off a chunk of tooth (think iceberg). And if the cracks get big enough, a gap forms between the tooth and the filling(think Grand Canyon), bacteria crawl in = cavity . And the cavity is under the filling, where you can’t clean it. This is a recipe for toothaches.

Enough said? So, will it make you feel better if you get your silver fillings out? I don’t know. Will it help your teeth be stronger and last longer? No question. Thanks for bringing this up today Cindy!

1. Those “laser whitening” systems are pricey, but worth it… You’ll be glad to know this isn’t true. The tray-whitening you do at home is just as effective (and maybe longer lasting.)
2. No pain, no gain goes for teeth whitening too… Whitening can cause sensitivity, but you can put fluoride gel in your whitening trays to combat the “ouch”. (Ask the dentist about the gel.)
3. If I drink lots of coffee or colas whitening won’t do any good… It’s true that brown drinks will darken your pearly whites, but whitening will help. Just stick with it!
4. If you bleach your teeth once, it will stay that way forever… Sorry, this one isn’t true either. You do have to do maintenance whitening – but only about once every 6 months.
5. Grocery store whiteners don’t work… Well, one brand does work. Crest Whitestrips are actually pretty good whiteners, but they only cover the front six teeth. If you can see more teeth than that when you smile, see the dentist for custom trays. Happy Whitening!! (michelle@totalcaredental.com for questions)