Anxiety and dental treatments

A lot of people find it scary to go to the dentist. The very thought can create such a fear that they completely avoid getting the oral care they need, complicating the situation further.

What is dental anxiety?

The paralyzing fear of going to a dentist or getting oral treatments is known as dental anxiety. The patient worries excessively and loses sleep. Dental anxiety is extremely common, with millions of people avoiding going to the Baltimore dentist because of fear.

Overcome dental anxiety:

Here are a few strategies that can help you calm your fears:

1. Communicate with the dental expert. Talk to your dentist. If you are worried about something or a certain procedure, come right out and speak to the dentist about it.
   
2. Get distracted. Some clinics offer video glasses to patients so that they watch movies during their dental treatments. Listening to music, watching television, or just letting your mind drift can help in easing anxiety.
   
3. Consider medication. If you are undergoing a dental treatment that involves anesthesia, you must rest assured that anesthesia these days is extremely effective in comparison to what it was in the past. For certain patients, a nitrous oxide or sedative can also help in calming the nerves.
   
4. Take breaks during dental treatments. Patients should take breaks during procedures, when nervousness starts to build up or they begin to feel claustrophobic. If you feel like taking a break in between the procedure, do so.
   
5. Sedation dentistry. In certain Baltimore family dentistry, dentists practice sedation dentistry where the patients get dental care under complete or partial loss of consciousness. Most patients don't require sedation dentistry, but those whose anxiety is severe can avail this facility.

As human beings, we have a tendency to fear the unknown, so do not be hesitant of asking questions before a treatment and make sure that the dentists do everything they can to make you feel relaxed during the visit. Undergoing regular dental care is important to your oral health, and is worth all the effort.

Does a root canal treatment actually work?

Do root canals really work? While the failure of a root canal treatment is a reality, there are also ways to solve the problem through root canal retreatment. This blog highlights the three reasons when root canals fail, and how getting initial root canal treatment from a good dentist Baltimore can decrease the chances of a failure.

The biggest reason behind the failure of a root canal treatment is bacteria. If we had sterile mouths there would be no problem of infection or decay, and injured teeth would repair themselves. Consequently we can attribute almost all root canal failure to bacteria, here are three common reasons why the treatment fails.

Missed canals

Untreated anatomy such as missed canal are a big reason for the failure of the treatment. For instance, teeth have two canals almost 94% of the times, which means if just one canal is found the Baltimore dentist should search carefully to find the other canal. Not treating the second canal can lead to failure.

Incompletely Treated Canal

Another common reason is incompletely treated canals. This normally happens in the form of "being short", when a canal is let’s say 24 millimeters long and the practitioner only treats 21 millimeters of it. Leaving a gap can lead to failure because it means that the unfilled or untreated space is ready for bacteria and infection.

Tissue

The third reason is the tissue that is left remaining in the tooth during the time of the root canal. This tissue becomes the source of nutrition for bacteria that have the potential of infecting the root canal. Root canals normally have uneven shapes that round instruments cannot easily clean.

One of the best ways for patients to prevent root canal failure is to seek dental care from an expert such as an endodontist that has the skill, experience, and proper equipment to perform such treatments. One of the best ways to find out about dentist in  Maryland  that offer root canal treatment is to search online.