Supporting Patients With Dental Anxiety: How to Help Them Feel Confident

As a dentist, one of the biggest challenges you face is the battle against dental anxiety. Who knows what or who is to blame for the pervasive fear many people feel when they think about the dentist?

The fact of the matter, though, is that quite a large percentage of patients imagine a visit to the dentist to be a fearful experience. One study by DentaVox suggests that the number may even be as high as 61%!

Because dentistry is your passion and specialty, you know that there is very little to fear and much to be gained from some time spent in your chair. But how can you help your patients see that and alleviate their fears so they can receive all the benefits of regular cleanings and care?

Let’s talk more about the ways you and your team can support patients with dental anxiety and how to help them feel confident.

Tip #1: Create a Welcoming Environment

Fear is more emotional than rational, and our surroundings give our brain so many cues that can manipulate our feelings about something. We often don’t even realize this is happening. And that includes at the dentist’s office.

Make sure your waiting room doesn’t give off a stuffy clinical vibe. You obviously want your waiting room to be clean and crisp, but make sure it also has some features to add warmth and familiarity. Here are a few ideas:

• Add soft textures in the form of a pillow or two
• Incorporate seasonal decor
• Offer some reading material that has nothing to do with dentistry, like magazines or even a good book
• Do your best to invest in super comfortable chairs
• Put something warm and uncontroversial on the TV, like a home decor show

Also, your front desk greeter may already offer a kind hello and smile to every patient as they walk in, but emphasize the importance of that warm welcome!

Tip #2: Always Communicate

This is a crucial point for both you and your hygienists. For someone with dental anxiety, fear can be reduced significantly through the simple act of communication. When your patient is able to more clearly understand the care you’re giving them, their anxiety calms down.

Explain what you’re about to do and why, and be sure to warn them if you think there might be any painful or unpleasant sensation from the treatment. This might seem counterintuitive, but you must remember that you are also building trust for the next visit. You never want to make your patients feel as though you’re trying to trick them into cooperating.

If you want to take your excellent bedside manner a step further, tell your patient how they can manage the anticipation of pain. Tell them you’re about to give them that Novocaine shot, and then reassure them, saying, “If you’re nervous about this, I can count down from five for you. We also have some stress balls you could squeeze; would you like one?”

Another great way to reduce anxiety surrounding painful or uncomfortable moments is to chat! This tactic can definitely be more or less effective depending on the individual patient and their demeanor. But for many people, a friendly conversation about what they did that weekend, their kids or pets, or how work is going can relieve tension and provide a helpful distraction. This has the added bonus of building your relationship with that patient!

You can also use clear hand signals to make patients feel they can communicate even when you are in the middle of working. This is huge for those with dental anxiety, as some of the fear comes from the sense that you can’t express pain or concerns when hands and equipment are in your mouth.

Tip #3: Tighten Up Your Schedule

And by that, we don’t mean tighten the time of each appointment to add new ones! What we mean is that you should communicate with your office team members to ensure that appointments aren’t being overbooked, moved around, and canceled much on your end.

When you have a patient with dental anxiety, they are likely experiencing emotional distress for days leading up to their appointment. If you cancel on them, or reschedule, you create a major added stressor: They have to go through “the wait” all over again. We know things happen and sometimes moving things around is a must, but try your best to make this an infrequent experience!

Tip #4: Make Checkout Simple and Free of Stress

On top of their fears about the visit itself, many of your patients might have concerns about how they’re going to pay for their treatment at check out. Now, you might be wondering how you could fix that outside of making the visit free (no thanks!).

We may be biased, but we have one answer for soothing this aspect of patients’ dental anxiety: dental membership plans. Want to learn more? Read on: How Dental Membership Plans Create a Better Patient Experience.

But here’s the gist: Dental membership plans enable you to bill your patients on an annual or monthly basis for their cleanings. They pay you the full amount instead of haggling with insurance. When you consider the premiums they’re paying, a membership plan often saves them money in the long run. Your membership plan can also make payment much more manageable for your uninsured patients.

Even for patients who are insured, a membership plan can reduce the anxiety and stress of checkout because they’ll already be on an automated billing system. Instead of standing at the counter waiting to run their insurance, etc., the patient can just leave after they receive their cleaning or treatment.

Uninsured patients can do the same, but it’s probably even more of a relief for them. Forget charging a dental visit to a credit card, because their dentist lets them pay slower in smaller chunks!

For patients in either situation, being able to go into the visit knowing they’ve already taken care of payment and can leave right away afterward reduces some of the stress surrounding their visit to the dentist’s office.

The Most Important Thing to Remember

As you implement these four tips, keep in mind that while dentistry is your everyday life, it may be a big stressor for your patients.

Don’t forget our four tips:

• Create a Welcoming Environment
• Always Communicate
• Tighten Up Your Schedule
• Make Checkout Simple and Free of Stress

Be your most empathetic self and strive to make them feel comfortable. The result will be patients who are happier—and thus, more likely to return to your practice!