Denise Billen-Mejia- The Appointments We Put Off

Most people who avoid these appointments are not phobic.

They are frightened, which is not a malfunction.

It's your nervous system doing what it was supposed to do.

Here is what I notice most often.

When someone tells me about their dental fear, there's always one specific afternoon behind it, and the memory-- in their memory, they're about seven.

An injection went in before the numbing had taken.

A dentist who was brusque or busy, or from an era when children were expected to be brave and not make a fuss.

The event lasted perhaps ninety seconds.

What it taught them lasted forty years.

That is the part people find hardest to accept.

These are capable adults, and yet some part of them still counts the dentist as a danger.

And it counts it so fast that the fear arrives before any thought does.

Telling yourself not to be ridiculous has never worked.

Most people who avoid these appointments are not phobic.

They are frightened, which is not a malfunction.

It's your nervous system doing what it was supposed to do.

Here is what I notice most often.

When someone tells me about their dental fear, there's always one specific afternoon behind it, and the memory-- in their memory, they're about seven.

An injection went in before the numbing had taken.

A dentist who was brusque or busy, or from an era when children were expected to be brave and not make a fuss.

The event lasted perhaps ninety seconds.

What it taught them lasted forty years.

That is the part people find hardest to accept.

These are capable adults, and yet some part of them still counts the dentist as a danger.

And it counts it so fast that the fear arrives before any thought does.

Telling yourself not to be ridiculous has never worked.