Posted on: Wednesday, March 2, 2005
Relax at dentist's? Here's the drill
By Cheryl Powell
Knight Ridder News Service
Scared of going to the dentist?
You're not alone.
"When the teeth are hurting, the pain is exquisite," said Rita Cowan, a Cuyahoga Falls psychologist who specializes in pain management.
"And human beings are designed for pain avoidance, so there's a built-in mechanism around that."
Past experiences, particularly those before current techniques that eliminate pain, can contribute to anxiety.
Horror stories and jokes about frightening dental visits don't help, either.
Cowan offers these tips to help patients make their next visit to the dentist more tolerable: