Natural Solutions for Easing Dental Fear (Anxiety about the Dentist's Office) | Ep. 42

Welcome to my podcast. I'm Dr. Nicole Cain, a naturopathic doctor with a master's in clinical psychology and a former anxiety sufferer turned anxiety freedom rebel. Did you know that around 20% of people have anxiety going to the dentist? Today we're talking about dentist anxiety, dental trauma, dental fear. I'm going to share with you my story so that you know why I care about this topic. And I want to tell you that growing up, I only got to pull two of my teeth. You know how when you're little kids and you wiggle your teeth and you pull your teeth out? My dentist pulled all my teeth out except for two. When I was in third grade, I had my first retainer. And I remember particularly being in a bowling alley, of all places, places. And I had this green sticky candy on a stick and I was sucking on it and it got stuck to my retainer and I ended up ripping my retainer out. And these are some of my earliest memories. And I was at the dentist so often that I started to become resistant to Novocaine. And so I would lose the novocaine benefit during procedures and start feeling pain. And so you've probably gathered that I've had a lot of dental trauma and dental stress. And I can tell you that these techniques that going to teach you today really work. They really help. And they're non medical, they're non pharmaceutical, which is awesome, because really the standard of care is to give you a benzodiazepine before and for the day of the procedure. And then some dentists will have laughing gas or nitrous oxide that you can use. And while that can be really helpful and important in the moment, my goal is to teach you additional or alternative strategies for dental anxiety and dental trauma. But first, let's start with why somebody may be afraid of going to the dentist. Because I think it's really important to know the why so that we can deal with the what. Right? So whatever could be happening for you, we always want to look at the root cause. Did you have a negative experience in the past or did you hear about a negative experience with dentistry in the past? Are you afraid of needles? Are you afraid of pain? Does the smell bother you? Or did you see somebody who was having a negative experience and you're just happy as a clam, and then suddenly your world opens up to. It could be scary. So childhood experiences can cause dental trauma. Fear of needles can cause dental trauma. And what about claustrophobia? It may not be the dentistry, but rather having somebody in your face and Feeling scared or dominated or trapped, that could be really scary for people. What about embarrassment for your teeth? I can tell you that when I go in and my hygienist is going to town, I'm so hoping that I brushed well enough and that she's not being grossed out by my teeth. Right? And so as, as you're listening to this, is anyone with me? Have you guys had this experience? And so while people may feel generally anxious, we want to identify if it's an actual dentistry phobia, because that would mean we treat it a little bit differently, right? We always want to treat the cause, we want to know the what so we can do the why. And so some people may feel nervousness or maybe they have a hard time falling asleep, or maybe they're afraid that we comment that somebody's afraid. Like what if they drop something in my throat or I choke or I inhale the liquid or something scary is happening with them being in their face, right? And embarrassment. We have people validating the embarrassment. It's not just me, fear of embarrassment or feeling ashamed. I always feel ashamed of my teeth. And I have fake teeth, you guys. So there's some disclosure there. And so there could be a lot of insecurity that they're going to find something wrong, they're going to find a cavity. There's a lot of insecurity with that. But it can become a phobia for somebody if that fear becomes so extreme and so irrational that it starts to impede your living, it starts to impede your functioning. So I'm going to tell you some top signs that you may be dealing with a dental phobia. Okay? So first of all, significant distress associated with dentistry visits or dentist appointments that actually clinically impair you from living your life the way you want to. And this may result in you having panic attacks. It may result in you avoiding going to the dentist. Maybe you need some sort of procedure done and you're just too scared to even think about it, let alone going emotional distress that starts to bleed into your day to day life where don't even talk about the dentist. I can't even hear about the dentist. You see it on TV and it creates a whole lot of distress, avoidance, nightmares. And so if you're having reoccurring dreams or nightmares, it could be a sign that you're dealing with a dentistry phobia, right? And also so you could have panic attacks if it's a dentistry phobia. So panic attacks can be really anything. Head to toe, it could be Numbness, tingling, nausea. Some people vomit when they get really anxious. It could cause gas or bloating or diarrhea or constipation. It could cause burning of the st skin. We call these paresthesias or neuropathies. Some people say my lips feel numb or my face feels numb or I can't feel my feet. Some people will feel this numbness and flatness on one side. Some people feel it on both sides. Some people, when they feel really anxious and they're dealing with a dental fear, they may also fear like they're choking or they feel like they can't breathe, or their heart is racing, or they have an elephant on their chest. And anything that can happen with panic attack or anxiety can happen if you're dealing with dental anxiety or dental phobia. And so let's talk really quickly about some natural solutions for easing dental phobia and dental fear. The number one thing is to make sure that you have a good dentist that respects you. It's really important to remember that the dentist is somebody that you are employing to deliver a service. And so that means that they need to be willing to hear you, that they need to be willing to answer your questions. They need to be sensitive to any anxiety or stress that you're feeling. And so as you're interviewing dentists, make sure that they are open to having these kinds of conversations because you are the one in charge of your health, and they need to be willing to be a collaborator with you. It shouldn't be a dictatorship. They shouldn't be lording over you because they are not superior to you. Right? So make sure that your dentist is willing to work with you. Questions to ask your dentist is ask them before a procedure what you can expect. Ask them to walk you through every phase of the procedure and what you might experience in terms of sight, sounds, smells. Like the experience of having a cavity done is really different than having a tooth extracted or having a root canal done or just a general cleaning. So sometimes anxiety can often be lessened by feeling informed about what's actually going to be happening and what isn't. Also, you want to make sure that your dentist is willing to work with you in terms of what feels like too much or what feels like too little. I always recommend that you come up with a signal for your dentist if you're feeling overwhelmed, if you need a break, if you're experiencing discomfort. And sometimes just simply raising your hand is a really great way to communicate to them, and then making sure that they respect that. Okay? So that's the first is we want to make sure that you are auditing your dentist and you deserve a dentist who's going to hear you and respect you. The second is again to take back control. So ask questions, get the information and create a plan and make sure that you're comfortable with it. You want to time your dental appointments to when it's a good time for you. And so if dentist office, if you find that your dentist is typically really busy and there's chaos at a certain time of day, that might not be the right time of day for you to go to the dentist. Maybe find a time where you're more relaxed generally and a time when the office is less busy and less chaotic. And then also you want to make sure that it's scheduled at a time as convenient for you if you need to do self care after your dentist appointment. So timing is key. And then prepping ahead of time. There is so much that we can do to prep for success. And so I'm going to share you a couple of options. One is you can actually do self hypnosis and I'm going to give you a reference from an actual dentistry website where they tell you how to do this. There are dental hypnosis and self hypnosis videos that you can find on apps. I did a quick YouTube search. There's some on there. And that can work really well. In fact, some people, I have a clinical hypnotherapist I work with and some people go to her because they can't tolerate epinephrine or novocaine or procainamide or anything like that. They can't tolerate it. So they have to use hypnosis for pain management. And for a lot of people it can work really well. Hypnosis can bring down anxiety, it can help manage pain, it can help amplify the good things that you're doing. If you're taking a medication, it can help the medication work better. Just gets you in the right space. Okay. So another way to prepare ahead of time is using medications and supplements wisely. We want to chase the anxiety, kind of like how we would chase a headache. You know how if you notice a headache coming on, if you just address it right then and there, it will work a lot better versus if you wait till the headache is 10 out of 10, worst it's ever been. We want to do that with anxiety. We want to be proactive. And so some dentists will write you a prescription for an anxiety medication. And there are also natural anti anxiety supports that you can use that work really well. So let me share some of those with you now. Okay. My favorite is increasing gaba. We know that things like just straight up gaba like pharma gaba and other forms of gaba, they're not very, they don't cross the blood brain barrier very well because the molecule size is a little bit large. And so you're probably not going to feel as much benefit from Pharmagaba as you would a prescription like Xanax or Ativan or Valium or something like that. But we have a workaround for that and it's using amino acids that actually help your body to make its own gaba. Gaba will help you feel less anxious, it will help you relax, it will help reduce anxiety, it will help with the heart pounding and the numbness and tingling and the nausea, all of those physical symptoms that come with panic and phobias. It will help increase GABA and it will help reduce anxiety. I use all sorts of amino acids. My favorite are in Happy sleepy powder which you can find at the link in the shop in our bio up above. And so Happy sleepy powder is my favorite way to increase gas. If you don't want to use amino acids, you want to give herbs a try. Two of my favorites are passiflora and kava kava. Passiflora has been used for a long time to help kids and elderly and adults alike for anxiety. It's a very gentle herb. It's sweet to the taste. Passiflora will work better over time. And kava kava on the other hand, can work really quickly. And kava kava has been studied in comparison to benzodiazepines and it is an effective alternative to those habit forming drugs. You can get kava kava at any health food store. My favorite brands where I have no affiliation, but my favorite would be Wise Woman Herbals Herb Pharm Gaia Kava kava is awesome. It kicks in within about 15 minutes. I like the tincture. I think that works faster. You can put it in your mouth under your tongue and it will make your tongue tingle a little bit. That means it's working and then it's great because it won't sedate you and knock you out so that after your dental appointment you can go back to your life. You can go back back to your day. I used kava kava a lot when I was in medical school when I was learning phlebotomy and I was really stressed. Kava was really helpful for that. So another hack is to bring headphones. There's lots of goofy sounds at the dentist. There's drills, there's suction, there's water. And so having music or a book or some sort of a guided imagery, something like that, can really make a big difference. I have a panic pack, you guys. And I have all of these things that we're talking about in the panic pack. So you can just straight up hook your panic pack onto your abdomen. Mine's a glittery fanny pack. And then you have the headphones, you have the earplugs, you have all of the things in there that you might need. And so if you don't like music or things are overstimulating, then put in a pair of earplugs. So bring headphones, bring earplugs, bring a buddy. If you have somebody that can drive you there, drive you home, support you while you're there, make you laugh, help you be distracted, if that's what's best for you. Bringing a buddy can make a really big impact. I love getting comfy for dentist visits. I just feel like if I'm feeling comfy in my clothing, then I'll feel less uncomfy in the dentist chair. My dentist gives me a heated blanket, which is so nice and so comforting. So if you like to be cuddly and cozy at the dentist, then ask for a blanket or bring your own. If you're on the other hand, you get hot and claustrophobic, then maybe wear cool clothes. Essential oils are amazing for stress, phobias, anxiety, and it can be great for dental anxiety. There's a couple of ways that you can use essential oils, and the clinical literature supports all of these. One is via inhalation, so you can ask your dentist if they'd be up for using a diffuser. You can put essential oils in the bowl of your ear, so don't put it in the ear canal, but in the bowl of the ear right here. And that will help absorb into the area where it can stimulate your vagus nerve. Your vagus nerve is. It controls and regulates your nervous system. We call that the autonomic nervous system. And when that's turned up, we feel more anxious. And then using essential oils like lavender or citrus vetiver, ylang, ylang can help really bring that down. It can help reduce anxiety and the stress. But if your dentist is in a scent free office or if they won't let you use oils, you can still get the benefit of oils. And my hack for that is to actually put essential oils on your face, feet, on your Toes, the soles of your toes and the soles of your feet. Vetiver works like a charm this way. When I was working in the med center, I had a lot of stress, but we were in a scent free med center. There are scents everywhere. Let's be real, you guys. But having a way that I could get that benefit from the oils without having to have everybody else sniffing them was awesome. So put the oils on the soles of your feet, the soles of your toes. Your body will absorb that and you should get the great antianxiety benefits. Okay, so we've been talking about dentist anxiety and the last tip I want to give you today is homeopathy for dental anxiety. Homeopathy can work really well, and homeopathy works best if you individualize the prescription. But I'm going to give you my top favorite remedies that you can give a try. There's a website called ABC Homeopathy where you can read more about these remedies. And I have some blogs buried deep in my website. If you go to drnicolecane.com and just type in homeopathy, you'll find a ton of content there. But my favorite remedies, number one is Arsenicum album. I've used this in kids, I've used it in myself, I've used it in adults. And arsenicum album is good for the specific form of anxiety that's usually accompanied with restlessness, the desire for consolation. You can't hold still. You want somebody there. You want to get up and move around, feeling chilly, wanting the warm blanket, and just feeling overall anxiety that something bad could happen to you. So that's our Senecum album again. You can get all homeopathy at a health food store and it's like eight bucks. That's amazing, right? Another homeopathic remedy that I love is argentum nitricum. Argentum is particularly good if you feel claustrophobic at the dentist. If you have heat and you're worse with heat and argentum, they feel like they need to just get out. Like get out of my face. It's too much. I'm hot. I need to just go outside and get into open air. And so argentum may be good if you have those symptoms and you're anxious. Another remedy that's great for anxiety at the dentist is pulsatilla. Pulsatilla is probably what I needed as a kid. I would sit in that dentist chair and I would just weep. I would just want my parents, I would want just someone to hug me. And consciousness. Console me and reassure me. I didn't want any water. I was hot. A warm blanket would have been too much. And so if your anxiety is, if you feel weepy and needy and you just really need to be reassured and comforted and consoled, pulsatillin might be the remedy for you. And the last one is aconite. And aconite is really good for hysterical anxiety, where it's just like panic attack, hysteria, restless agitation. Company doesn't help. It's just like sheer doom. Something terrible is happening or something terrible is going to happen. So just a little love before you go is that the dentist is a necessary part of being healthy. Your teeth are so close to your brain and your teeth have direct innervations into your nervous system. And we know that dentistry is related to the health of your heart, the health of your body. So going to the dentist, you should be doing that, my love. And if anxiety and stress and panic and phobias or traumas are holding you back, then try these things. You are worth it. If anxiety is a big part of your story, then let's work on your anxiety. If you've had a huge dental trauma, like I've had lots of micro traumas at the dentist, then let's heal those parts. Let's heal those wounds. Because now it's time to write a new chapter. You're no longer where you were. You are here it is now, and you can write a new story. Okay, I have some free goodies for you. I promised I'd share with you is the Anxiety Wellness Springboard. You can get the link in the bio. It's totally free and it tells you more about tips that I use to help with anxiety and stress. So go and download it. Click on it. You're going to love it. So check out that and then also check out the blog. The blog is going to go live hopefully in the next week or so, and that's going to have all this information on here. I will see you soon.

The recording you just listened to consists of the personal opinions of Dr. Nicole Caine, a naturopathic doctor with a Master's in Clinical psychology. While these opinions are based upon literature, her counseling, education, medical training and clinical experience, this content should not be viewed as the definitive opinion on these subjects. Listening to this podcast is not a substitute for any sort of medical, psychological or other form of treatment. If you are in a crisis, please call 911-OR call the National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-8255. If you're in need of counseling, don't hesitate to make an appointment with a counselor in your area. Dr. Nicole Cain is so passionate about people getting their life back. If this resonates with you and you think this podcast would help someone you love, please share it with them. Stay in the conversation with Dr. Nicole Cain about writing the next chapter of your life so that it plays out just the way you want it. Explore your options for working with her at www. Dr. Nicolecane.com that's Dr. Dr. Nicole N I C O L E Cain C-A-I-N.com when you're there, be sure to take advantage of the Free Anxiety Freedom One week challenge. We look forward to seeing you on the next episode of the get your life Back podcast. Here's to your next chapter.

Sam.