When you’re going in for an operation on your mouth, it’s completely normal to feel tense, on edge, and anxious. We get it. Having such a vital area of your body worked on can feel absolutely nerve-wracking. Not to mention the needles used, any potential past negative experiences, and even the loss of control as the dental anesthesia sets in.
Anxiety’s a tricky thing. Even if you’re visiting a dental surgeon with decades of experience, and one who you know will take all of the care and time in the world to get your operation done right, it can still trigger unpleasant feeling associated with anxiety. Thankfully, with a few tips and tricks, you can make the oral surgery as painless as possible for your anxiety and learn how to help assuage those feelings.
Communication is Key
Like a lot of other areas of life and interpersonal relationships, communication is vital if you’re having uneasy feelings associated with your upcoming operation—whether that’s a wisdom tooth extraction, bone grafting in the mouth, or even just getting a high-quality dental implant. Even just the act of talking about our anxieties can help ease them. Make a point to call or visit your local dentist who performs oral surgeries to talk with them ahead of time about your concerns.
Chances are good that it’s not their first time discussing something like this with a patient—and if it is, it certainly won’t be their last time. Everyone gets nervous, and dental anxiety is incredibly common with folks. When you’re speaking with your surgeon who removes patients’ wisdom teeth and performs other operations, make sure to list out your anxieties to them and ask any lingering questions that might be on the edge of your mind. If they’re a caring and compassionate oral surgeon, they’ll not only listen, but they’ll also be able to answer all of your lingering questions about the procedure. After all, they want you to have a good experience and come in on operation day ready to go. Having concrete answers backed up by a medical professional can sometimes be enough to outright eliminate the anxiety you’re experiencing.
Calming Techniques Pre-Surgery
Say it’s the big day before you go in to get a replacement tooth set into your gums. Or the day before you get your wisdom teeth pulled out. Whatever it is, if you’re starting to feel a sense of anxiety or dread leading up to your appointment time, try some of the following techniques to calm your racing mind.
One of the most effective ways to combat anxiety and some overactive thoughts is to try breath work or deep breathing exercises. Taking in a deep breath, holding it, and then exhaling while repeating this process a handful of times is incredibly effective at reducing any symptoms of anxiety you might be experiencing leading up to your surgery. It activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which communicates to your brain that you are, in fact, safe and not presently in any kind of danger.
One of the other methods you can try leading right up to the moment you go in for an operation is to listen to calming music. Technically, you could listen to any kind of music that brings out positive feelings within, but the most effective ones to listen to before going in for an operation on your mouth is something with minimal, if any, lyrics and a slow tempo. Lo-fi music has the ability to lower both our heart rate and cortisol (the hormone responsible for stress). With a good pair of headphones or earbuds, it can even help distract us from what is currently going on and the anxious feelings we’re experiencing.
Knowledge is Power
When you get told you need to come in to your local surgeon for a bone graft to help fill in your jaw, or that you need to schedule a soft tissue grafting for around your gums due to periodontal disease, it’s not hard for your mind to start racing and exaggerating what the procedure will be like, thus triggering your anxiety.
Anxiety is a totally normal reaction to the unknown. When you’re unsure of how something will turn out, or what all is involved in that procedure you’re going in for, it’s easy to exaggerate the possibilities and let your mind spiral. However, if you do some research—or again, talk to your reliable and experienced mouth surgeon—you’ll almost always find out that the procedure isn’t nearly as bad as you thought. That soft tissue grafting to replace gum loss? It’s actually a super minimally-invasive procedure, and it’s a short surgery to boot. You’ll be able to go home right after, and you’ll need to be on a soft-food-only diet for a couple weeks while the gum grafts heal. See, that doesn’t sound so bad, does it?
Taking the time to understand what you’ll be having done and the steps associated with it is one of the easiest ways to dispel that fear of the unknown—plus, you’ll get to learn about something cool!
Bring Along a Friend
Taking a friend or loved one along to your oral surgery is a super effective way to provide emotional support both before and after your surgery. Your friends and loved ones care about you and will do everything in their power to soothe your anxiety before going in for that tooth replacement or getting all four wisdom teeth taken out of your mouth.
Plus, you’ll have someone there for you when you’re coming out of the dental sedation that was used on you—they may get to witness some funny moments, but having someone there to support you through your experience is sometimes enough to manage anxiety.
While experiencing anxiety related to dental procedures is completely normal and something that affects way more people than you think, it doesn’t make it any more comfortable. Trying out the above techniques, on the other hand, hopefully will help and offer some reassurance.
