anxiety

Dental Phobia – Therapy Treatments for Anxiety and Phobia

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Overcoming a fear of the dentist, or odontophobia, is incredibly important if you want to maintain your oral hygiene and avoid having serious health problems in the future. You may be pleased to learn that fear of the dentist is actually surprisingly common – affecting 20% of the population worldwide. Most people’s fear of the dentist doesn’t stop them from visiting the dentist when problems arise but it does stop them when going in for regular check-ups – which increases the likelihood of actual problems occurring.  For some though dental phobia is so severe that they will not visit the dentist under any circumstances – and will often result to extreme measures to fix their own dental issues. In either case various techniques and therapies can be used to overcome dental phobia. Visiting the dentist regularly is the best way … Read more

Planning Intravenous Sedation for Wisdom Teeth Surgery

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An article (in press at the time of writing this -2012) appears in the International Journal of Oral and Maxilofacial Surgery titled “Does planned intravenous sedation affect preoperative anxiety in patients?” by M. Seto, Y. Sakamoto, H. Takahashi, R. Kita, and T. Kikuta. The authors set out to evaluate The Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) which can be used to evaluate levels of state and trait anxiety. State anxiety is defined as a subjective feeling of nervousness, whereas trait anxiety is defined as an individual’s underlying tendency to perceive a situation as stressful or threatening. One hundred and eleven (111) Japanese patients who were scheduled to have wisdom teeth extracted under local anesthesia were evaluated. STAI evaluates the degree anxiety based on 5 stages. The article states “The authors assessed preoperative anxiety using STAI at the initial visit and recommended … Read more

Behavioral Issues Come to Children with Migraine

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A new study in Cephalagia shows that children who have migraine headaches are much more likely than other children to also have behavioral difficulties, including social and attention issues, and anxiety and depression. This is no surprise to me. Marco Arruda, director of the Glia Institute in São Paulo, Brazil, together with Marcelo Bigal of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York studied 1,856 Brazilian children aged 5 to 11. The authors were studying how children’s behavioural and emotional symptoms correlate with migraine and tension-type headaches. Children who experience migraine had a much greater overall likelihood of abnormal behavioral scores than controls, especially in social, attention, somatic, anxiety-depressive, and internalizing domains. Children who experience tension-type headaches were affected in the same domains as migraine sufferers, but to a lesser degree. For children with either migraine (23%) or tension-type … Read more

Using Adaptogens to Help Reduce Stress

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An interesting review by Robert Provino titled “The role of adaptogens in stress management” appears in the Australian Journal of Medical Herbalism (2010, 22, 2, pp 41-49). The author states: “Adaptogens can be viewed as tonics and are prescribed to enhance vitality and are indicated when stress levels are high, during convalescence after surgery or illness, or during periods of challenging or difficult life changes.” “Adaptogens appear to exert their antistress effects by regulating homeostasis via the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis and inhibiting or decreasing circulating levels of nitric oxide (NO) and cortisol.” The author searches peer reviewed journal articles on adaptogens and ends up finding papers on the following 8 (to which I have linked to the Wikipedia articles): Withania somnifera (ashwagandha) : Some research indicates a potential ability to decrease anxiety. In a study on memory deficient … Read more

How to Prepare for a Visit to the Dentist

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If you have had a bad experience at the dentist in previous years, being afraid that your next visit will cause discomfort or bring up bad memories is quite common. Perhaps you have never been afraid of the dentist but if a new treatment is the plan this can also cause mild anxiety. There are hundreds of reasons that patients fear visits to the dentist but there are also many ways to counteract the feeling of dread. Many people fear visits to the dentist but if visits of this nature cause you anxiety, here are four tips to help you overcome your fear. Talk to your Dentist If you are scared of booking a dental appointment, speak to your dentist about it. If your dentist is aware of the problem, they will walk you through the treatment and put you … Read more