Saratoga Springs’ dentist, Dr. Moreau and his staff realize that there are millions of people affected with dental phobia. Fear of the dentist, most often caused by a past traumatic experience or perceived traumatic experience, keeps people from routine visits to the dentist which become critical to the health of the mouth as well as the entire body.

In addition to offering you a warm, trusting, empathetic and caring environment, Saratoga Springs’ dentist, Dr. Moreau can provide you several options that will help you to feel safe, comfortable and relaxed during your visit. The most important gift that he and his team offer is trust and that begins by taking the time to make you aware of your condition and treatment options. Another option is the use of mild oral sedatives that take edge of the situation.

Signs of dental anxiety

The first step in handling any dental anxiety is to simply acknowledge it and relate that to Dr. Moreau and his highly trained staff. Some physical signs may be sweating, holding your breath, hyperventilating, increased heart rate, dizziness, heaviness in the chest all of which are the result of the sympathetic nervous system being activated. This part of the nervous system is activated at times when the body senses danger and it goes into a fight, flight, or freeze mode.

How to manage dental anxiety?

When disturbing thoughts associated with visiting the dentist arise the best thing to do is to see the thoughts coming and going. Simply label them as thoughts and watch them go. Suppressing fearful thoughts only gives more power to the thoughts and they will keep coming. Secondly, reversing the fight to flight response is accomplished by stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system and this most effecting done by initiating deep (belly) breathing.

Patient Education

Our office recognizes what is most important in our lives is our relationships and that is why we are all about building trusting relationships beginning with spending the time to listen to your goals, concerns and anxieties. We then will work with you to create a treatment strategy that meets your need as well as making getting there as comfortable and anxious-free as possible.