3 Ways to Prevent or Treat Dental Phobia
Dental phobias can be a big problem for kids. Kids can start to be afraid of the dentist on their own, but it can be reinforced by other people and then turn into something really serious. There are things that you can do to help your child avoid dental phobias and to help them handle going to the dentist if they do have a phobia.
Try to Control Your Dental Fear
One way you can help to keep your child from developing a dental fear is to not talk about how afraid or worried about going to the dentist you may be where they can hear you. If they hear that you are afraid of going, they will see that the dentist is something to be afraid of. If you talk to your child about going to the dentist and about how good your teeth feel after seeing the dentist, then that is going to go a long way toward making it normal to go and see the dentist, and not something to be afraid of.
Role Play
Another thing that you can do to help both treat and prevent a dental phobia is to role play with your child. Tell them things that happen at the dentist and let them act it out. For example, you can tell them that one of the things that will happen is that the dentist will look in their mouth and count their teeth. Then you can sit down, let your child pretend to be the dentist, and let them look at your teeth. If you want to take it a step further, there are dentist playsets that you can get that will let your child dress up like the dentist. They can use that playset to play dentist with their siblings or toys as well.
Medication
If all else fails, and you have an older child, you can talk to your dentist about some kind of medication that will help them relax when they have an appointment. Some kinds of medication, like anti-anxiety meds, aren't a good idea for a young child, but may work for a pre-teen or teen. Your dentist will have better ideas and solutions about what your child can take to help handle their anxiety.
It's important that your child sees the dentist on a regular basis. If they have problems with a dental phobia, then you need to help them handle the appointments.
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