The Psychology of Fear in Dentistry (Part 1 of 3)

Even when lost, a good hike is good for the soul

One of our most primal reactions and defense mechanisms is fear. We fear the unknown because we believe something bad ‘might’ happen. We fear pain and discomfort. We fear failure and humiliation. We fear fire, and danger. We fear things that can hurt us and things, things that might, and some that won’t.

Fear and pain are powerful emotions. Maybe some of the most powerful ones we have. They are difficult to tame and they can often be the root at why we avoid certain things. Think about trying to learn a new skill. The fear of failure and possible humiliation of the learning process can be too much for some people to handle.

So what do we do when we have fear about something that must be tackled? The most common thing we do is to procrastinate and kick the can down the road. We may even kick the can down the road for a very long time, but there is almost always a point where that road ends and a confrontation with what we feared comes to bear. The psychology of fear in dentistry is real and I have a short story about fear and literally, the end of the road.

So, years ago, I was driving my, new to me, car back from Kansas and along the way, I decided to stop at Meteor Crater. I had driven by it many times, but the time of day was right and I was always curious how big this hole, I mean crater, really was. It’s big by the way! Now, if you have ever driven there, you will come to a fork in the road where you stay left on the paved road to go to the crater or you can go right on a primitive road that will lead you into the country. That country road can take you to Highway 87, which cuts about an hour out of your time if you were to backtrack from the Crater. Or, if you choose the wrong path, straight into the Coconino National Forest. I choose the wrong path!

At first, the primitive road was great. Being from Kansas, I’ve driven on hundreds of miles of dirt roads and this one was better than most of those so I was thinking I was pretty smart to take this little shortcut. And if I actually went the right way, I would have been. But what I didn’t realize was that while the road started off dry and hard and easy to drive on, I was headed up, up, up into the forest and it had just snowed a ton recently. Heading the wrong way and heading up, I quickly learned that there is a gradient between a dry road and a muddy road. My lovely primitive road very gradually got more and more muddy and my car was totally not made for what I was about to put the poor thing through.

I reached a fence with a gate that someone had left open that said ‘Road Closed’. I wanted to turn around, but the road was so muddy at this point I couldn’t stop or I would be immediately stuck. And that’s when the panic kicked in. I’m in the middle of nowhere, it’s wintertime, this road is supposed to be closed, there isn’t another person within 20 miles of me, it’s pretty cold, and my car is about to get stuck at any moment.

I hadn’t felt a panic like that ever before. I didn’t know what to do other than just keep driving, hoping the car would keep going. I was doing a good job of keeping it going for another 20 to 30 panic inducing minutes. And then I saw it. The spot that no car escapes from. And that was it, I was truly stuck and I was truly in the middle of nowhere. But oddly enough, in that moment, all panic left me and I realized that there was only one thing to do. I had some food, and luckily I had a bunch of warm clothes and gloves, so I packed my backpack full of food, put on my warm clothes, and started hiking. I knew that the road I was on had to come out somewhere, but with no cell reception, no map, and no idea where I really was, I just had to keep it together. Funny enough, while back home, I had just read a story about Napoleon’s ill-fated Russian Campaign during the winter. I figured, if anyone could survive that, I can survive this. (Checking my notes, some 75% to 90% of Napoleon's initial troops were lost?!) Some perspective always helps!

So off I went. Walking through the mud, seeing the footsteps of someone else who had gotten stuck in the same spot, and no end in sight. I checked my phone over and over, but no reception. There was literally nothing to do but go forward. After a few hours, a few hundred yards in front of me was a herd of elk. I think I counted almost 50 of them. And who was following that heard but an actual mountain lion. I grabbed a stick just in case, but he wasn’t interested in me! Luckily, after about four hours of hiking, I ran into someone driving and we got the tow truck out there and was able to get sorted and get back on my way eventually the next day. But the thing that stuck with me is how quickly my panic turned to action once I had no choice.

We want my lesson to be a lesson in what not to do with your fear. While you too may find yourself in an almost serene state once all of your options have been thrown out the window, we want you to recognize that that is not the best way of dealing with your dental fears. When all of your options have been thrown out because you procrastinated in seeking treatment, you end up with the worst choice. You may feel psychologically better since the choice was essentially made for you, but knowing that you will be left with the worst choice, you should feel empowered to take control, call the office, get that exam, and see what can be done for you while other options are still on the table. Understanding that you have some amount of control is a first step in combatting your fear!

We understand why you fear the dental office and in the next segment, we’ll talk about what we have done to address those fears and why that matters.