As you finalize your list of New Year’s resolutions, think about how your life would improve if you added a healthy, beautiful smile to it.

Our team at Aberdeen Smiles wants you to be happy with the smile you see in the mirror and in photos. That requires routine cleanings and exams.

If fear has kept you from that, today’s blog can help you. We’re talking about what your dental fear is doing to you and how we can help you overcome it in the new year!

What Is Dental Fear Doing To You?

Fear keeps you from a healthy mouth and body.

With each passing year, the connection between your oral health and total health becomes stronger. Study after study supports the fact that the same infection of gum disease is linked to serious systemic health problems like heart disease, chronic depression, type II diabetes, and stroke, just to name a few.

When you’re afraid of keeping your dental appointments, you’re not able to clean your teeth and gums effectively enough to prevent gum disease. Daily brushing and flossing is important, but they aren’t enough on their own to reach every space and clean your teeth of plaque and tartar buildup.

Fear creates expensive dental problems.

When you allow fear to keep you from getting routine dental check-ups, your teeth and gums will suffer the consequences. You become susceptible to plaque and tartar buildup, erosion of tooth enamel, bacteria growth, and ultimately gum disease.

Once you have a cavity, a cracked tooth, or an infection, it will get worse without proper treatment. By staying away from the dentist office, you’re vulnerable to multiple dental problems that will require long, complicated, expensive treatments to get your mouth healthy again.

Fear can begin the domino effect of tooth loss.

When you lack consistent professional dental care, problems with your teeth and gums will inevitably stack up. Damaged or weakened enamel and cavities can make eating uncomfortable. Rather than seeking a dentist’s help, your fear will force you to simply cut the foods you love one by one so that your diet is made up of bland, soft foods.

You also risk tooth loss. Missing even one tooth begins a domino effect of more tooth loss down the road because your jawbone can deteriorate over time. It gets to a level of weakness that it can no longer support your other teeth, and you lose another.

That’s how it works, and it makes keeping a steady diet of nutritious food very difficult.

Regain Control Of Fear & Oral Health

Getting your oral health back starts with learning to control your fears about dental appointments. Our team understands that and creates an environment to help you along in that effort.

For starters, we take the time to listen to your cares and concerns. You won’t feel rushed because our staff goes above and beyond to make you feel cared for.

From there, it’s about making an effort to cater to your physical comfort. We offer warm blankets and cozy massage chairs that will help you relax while you receive treatment.

For some patients, the way they’re treated is enough to set their mind at ease. But you might need a little more help than that. We can give you nitrous oxide that will keep you calm and happy while you breathe it in for a worry-free procedure.

We also offer something unique to most dental practices. You can enjoy a soothing paraffin wax treatment during your visit! It’s one more way we aim to transform the way you see dentistry. When you combine all of these elements, you will start to feel more and more confident with each new dental appointment, and eventually, overcome your fears completely.

Overcome Dental Fear In 2018!

Fear isn’t always bad. It’s often healthy, in fact. Fear is what keeps us from doing things that might be dangerous.

But fear can also be paralyzing. It keeps you from going for that promotion. It keeps you from joining that new gym in town. It keeps you from having the things you want out of life.

That includes a healthy, beautiful smile. But Dr. Drake and our team at Aberdeen Smiles is here to help you overcome your dental fear in 2018. We’re excited to meet you and change the way you see the dentist office!

Fill out and submit our convenient online form to request an appointment at Aberdeen Smiles. Or call our Aberdeen, SD office at 605-277-9049.