Your children might inherit your bad teeth, but thety don't have to inherit your dental anxiety, CLAIRE O'CONNELL reports
YOU ARE sitting tilted back in a dentist's chair. He pulls the overhead light closer, says "open wide" and starts to clean and polish your teeth with dental implements.
If the mere thought of that scenario fills you with dread, then it's probably best to keep those feelings to yourself, at least when the kids are around.
As many as one-third of children who visit the dentist can experience anxiety, but this week the Irish Dental Association (IDA) wants to alert parents to the important role they can play in helping children view dental check-ups as a normal part of life, to be taken in their stride.
Parents may unwittingly pass on their own dental fears to children, and watching what you say in the surgery can make a big difference to the child's attitude, says Cork-based paediatric dentist and IDA member Gerry Buckley.
"It's a case of not being negative, instead praising the child and helping the dentist gain the child's trust and confidence to allow them receive the dental treatment," he says.
But it can be a tall order for parents who themselves are not comfortable in that environment, admits Buckley, who works daily with children, including those with special needs such as Down's syndrome, autism or previous experience of hospitals, who could be more susceptible to dental anxiety.
"Getting parents to not speak negatively in the dental surgery can be quite difficult because they may speak about their own dental experiences and anxieties, and they are usually transferring their negativity onto the child," says Buckley.
Even trying to reassure the child by saying how brave they are could trigger anxiety, he explains. "You are just giving the child this idea that he is undergoing a procedure that's going to hurt rather than something that he or she is able to cope with," he says.
Instead, he wants parents to approach a dental visit as a normal part of life, and praise the child when they co-operate: "We are trying to encourage parents to be more proactive and enforce positive behaviour, like saying 'good you are sitting up in the chair, you are opening wide for the dentist, you are doing very well'."
The IDA believes that between 20 and 30 per cent of children in Ireland have some dental anxiety, with around one in 10 experiencing extreme fear.
The anxiety can start before the appointment, with the child being unwilling to enter the surgery, says Buckley.
And then there's body language. "If they are hiding behind their mother, you know they are anxious about the appointment," he says. "There's also the body language in the chair; they may be very defensive about getting anything into their mouth."
In such cases, the dentist may have to work hard to gain the child's trust, and Buckley has spent up to several months working with individual children to encourage them into the surgery for treatment. Being afraid can make the dental experience appear worse for the child, he says. "A heightened level of anxiety will automatically give the child the feeling that even though what in normal circumstances they might perceive as a vibration, let's say of a disc to polish their teeth, they are in such a heightened state of anxiety, they feel it as pain."
To help avoid such extreme situations, he recommends that parents encourage good dietary practices and dental hygiene at home to avoid major problems, and then if possible bring the child for their first dental checkup at a time when there's nothing obviously wrong.
"Bringing them in when there's no cavity in the mouth is the best time, to get them used to the environment, to get to know the dentist or dental nurse," he says.
Dentists themselves are also an important part of the equation and need to have empathy with the child, encouraging them to relax.
"The tone of your voice is very important and the management of their body language," says Buckley. "You can put your hand on their shoulders or on the crown of the child's head and that has a relaxing effect."
But parents with a positive approach at home and in the surgery can help make the experience seem less daunting for their children, he says. "Either through silence and just being there and being a support or saying the right thing through positive encouragement and praising the child, you can help."