Survey suggests that going to the Dentist is scarier than snakes and spiders
A survey carried out by the British Dental Health Foundation has found that going to the dentist makes people more anxious than snakes and spiders.
The results of the survey echo the recent results of the Adult Dental Health survey, which revealed that almost half of dental patients suffered from dental anxiety.
The British Dental Health Foundation survey asked over 1,000 participants to rate what made them most nervous; the list included snakes, spiders, seeing a doctor, going to hospital, visiting a dentist, heights, flying and injections. A fifth of participants rated going to the dentist the most scary and only heights made people more nervous than seeing their dentist; going to hospital came third in the list, with snakes fourth and spiders fifth.
The survey also found that people feared going to the dentist much more than seeing their doctor; almost ten times as many people feel nervous about seeing their dentist than their doctor. The results of the Adult Dental Health survey show that having a tooth drilled and having a local anaesthetic injections were the main causes of anxiety.
Dr Nigel Carter, Chief Executive of the BDHF, said that dental anxiety was a real issue for everyone involved in the dental profession; he said that dentists need to work together to tackle the problem of dental anxiety and find solutions to make people feel more relaxed about seeing their dentist. Dr Carter said that the comparison with doctors was particularly worrying and showed that there is a long way to go in the fight against dental phobia.
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