Tapping for Dental Fear and Anxiety: Simple Steps to Clear the Fear and Love Your Dentist Again

By Wendy Bett

Do you hate going to the dentist? Do dental visits cause you such intense fear and anxiety that you will even avoid getting the dental treatments you so desperately need, for months or even years at a time?

If so, you are not alone! The fear of going to the dentist and having dental work done is a common struggle for countless people. Fearful feelings can range from mild apprehension to full blown panic and terror.

The author of this book suffered for more than thirty years with a severe dental phobia that caused extreme feelings of anxiety and panic, complete with hyperventilation, tightness in the chest, heart pounding, trembling, nausea, and dizziness. As a result, she avoided going to the dentist whenever possible, and when she absolutely had to go, she would be emotionally traumatized by every visit.

Then she discovered a gentle acupressure technique that changed everything. By lightly tapping and stimulating certain acupressure points on the face and body, she was able to completely dissolve her fear of the dentist. The panic, terror and anxiety about going to the dentist was finally gone, and she was able to have her teeth restored to perfect health after more than thirty years of constant pain, discomfort and embarrassment.

This book shares the author's journey through this process and offers simple, step-by-step instructions that you can also use to clear your own dental fears in mere weeks in most cases.

Imagine being able to visit the dentist feeling confident and happy.

Imagine being proud of your smile.

Imagine being able to chew your food without discomfort or worry.

All of this and more is possible when you clear the fear!

The guidelines in this book can lead you to a new life of relief, freedom and comfort that you never dreamed possible.

It is possible to love your teeth (and your dentist) again, and this book will show you how to do it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wendy Bett
• Release date: Apr 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781533770806

Book preview

Tapping for Dental Fear and Anxiety

Simple Steps to Clear the Fear and Love Your Dentist Again

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by Wendy Bett

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The techniques contained in this book are provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a substitute for professional care. Always consult your physician or other qualified professional for treatment of medical or mental health issues. You agree to accept full responsibility for your use of this information. While tapping (EFT) has produced remarkable clinical results, it must still be considered to be in the experimental stage and thus practitioners and the public must take complete responsibility for their use of it. 

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© Copyright 2016 All Rights Reserved.  Unauthorized distribution is prohibited.  No part of this book may be shared or duplicated without express written permission from the author.

Introduction:

For more than thirty years, I suffered with a severe dental phobia; extreme feelings of anxiety and panic about having dental work done.

I couldn't go to the dentist. In fact, I couldn't even pick up the phone to make an appointment without having severe panic attacks complete with hyperventilation, tightness in my chest, heart pounding, trembling, nausea, and lightheadedness. All of these unpleasant symptoms would take over my body and prevent me from going to the dentist.

During the rare times when I absolutely had to go, for example when one of my teeth became infected or I was in so much pain that I had no other option; I would force myself to push through the panicky feelings and go to the dentist anyway. But it was always tremendously traumatic before, during, and long after the visit was over.

By the time I was in my mid-forties, I had managed to avoid going to the dentist for much of the previous thirty years, and my teeth showed it. Many of them were decaying and brittle, some had serious tartar build-up, and two molars had become infected due to chronic neglect. I knew that it was just a matter of time before I would need to face my fears and go back to the dentist again.

Then I discovered a simple, gentle acupressure technique that could be used to dissolve fear, anxiety, phobias, and a host of other issues. I had been aware of this technique for several years already, but I didn't understand how to use it to clear a serious phobia like mine.

Through trial and error, I figured out how to use this miracle technique for phobias, and I began steadily clearing the fear and trauma around my fear of dental work, and it completely changed my life.

After just a few months of working with this technique, I was able to not only make a dental appointment without any panic attacks, I was able to walk into the office, sit down in the chair and have a lot of work done without a single flicker of fear.

Since then, I have been back to the dentist countless times. My teeth have been restored to perfect health; I can smile and chew confidently, and best of all, my entire body feels better!

Our oral health has a tremendous impact on our overall state of wellness, and I now take very good care of my teeth. Best of all, I know that I will be able to confidently take care of any other issues that arise before they become chronic and cause me excessive pain and suffering again.

Through this experience, I have realized that there are thousands of people who suffer from intense fear and panic about dental work, just as I did. (Strangely, I thought I was the only one!)

Once I realized that so many other people were struggling with the same challenges I did, I knew I needed to share my story and help as many of them as I could.

If you have a story similar to mine, if your dental visits are traumatic and terrifying, I wrote this book for you.

I am going to share the details of exactly what I did to clear my dental phobia. I will reveal the exact steps I took to 'tap away' thirty years of trauma, fear and pain, and I will show you how to clear your own unique issues relating to dental fear and anxiety.

There's a good chance that some of your fears will be similar or even identical to mine, but you may also have some unique fears, and I will show you how to identify and clear them.

I will also share with you the wonderful technique I used to clear my phobia. The technique is called 'Emotional Freedom Techniques®,' EFT for short, or simply, 'tapping.'

It's a very simple technique that you can learn in just a few minutes. If you happen to already be familiar with tapping, you can dive right in and start clearing your dental fears immediately.

This book can change your life if you are willing to do the exercises I share within. Years of fear, pain and trauma can be dissolved in mere weeks in most cases.

Imagine being able to visit the dentist feeling confident and happy.

Imagine being proud of your smile.

Imagine being able to chew your food without discomfort or worry.

I cannot accurately describe the feelings of relief and freedom you will enjoy once your dental fears are gone. There are simply no words that can capture the feeling. It is freeing, inspiring, and life-changing in so many wonderful ways.

I wish that same freedom for you, and I hope that this book helps you as much as the techniques within have helped me.

Chapter 1

How Does a Phobia Get Started?

When I was a child, I loved going to the dentist. I never had any cavities, and my dental visits were always pleasant and fun.

When I was sixteen years old, that changed. A cavity developed on one of my upper molars and I needed to have a filling. Still, I wasn't nervous. I had had only pleasant dental visits prior to that, so I expected the visit to be easy.

Unfortunately, for an unknown reason, the Novocain was completely ineffective on me that day. The dentist administered as many shots as he safely could, but I wasn't numb at all.

Since then, I have had Novocain many times and it has always worked, so I suspect that the dentist administered it improperly, or perhaps that batch of Novocain was faulty. I'll never know for sure.

Even though my tooth wasn't numb, the dentist decided to drill anyway, and needless to say, it was extremely painful!

At that time, I was a timid teenager so I didn't tell him to stop. Instead, I lay there in the chair sobbing, in severe pain, until the filling was done. The whole process probably lasted ten or fifteen minutes, but it felt like hours to me.

When I walked out of the dentist's office after that visit, I vowed never to go to a dentist again. I was extremely traumatized by the experience, and that trauma would haunt me for the next thirty years.

Back then, I didn't know anything about phobias. I had no idea how they got started, or even what they were. All I knew was that I couldn't go to the dentist anymore.

Understand that I'm not saying that I wouldn't go to the dentist again...I'm saying that I could not do it.

Merely thinking about going to the dentist would trigger strong feelings of panic in my body. My breathing would speed up to the point of hyperventilation; my heart would pound so hard that I felt like I might pass out; I would sweat and tremble violently; I would feel lightheaded, dizzy, faint and nauseated. Basically, I would feel like I was going to die!

I didn't understand it then, but my body was going into the 'fight or flight' response. Due to my earlier traumatic experience, I now had a program running in my brain that said that the dentist's office was a dangerous place. My body was trying to protect me by warning of impending danger! In my irrational thought process, going to the dentist meant danger. Staying away meant safety.

If I had been able to think logically about the situation, I would have admitted that a dental visit is not really a 'danger' to me or anyone else. But it felt dangerous, and I heeded the warnings that my body was giving me to stay away.

And voila, my dental phobia was born.

A 'phobia' is defined as an irrational, persistent fear or dread. Some people have phobias about spiders or snakes, or flying in an airplane, or any number of other things.

My phobia was about the dentist, or rather, having actual dental work done. I wasn't afraid of dentists outside of a dental office. If I met a dentist in a social setting I wouldn't be afraid of him or her. I just couldn't go to a dentist's office and have work done.

A phobia most often develops after a traumatic or frightening experience. A person who survives a plane crash or a rough, turbulent flight may then develop a fear of flying. A young child who discovers a large spider crawling on his or her leg might then develop a lifelong spider phobia.

Sometimes it's not even your own scary experience that causes the development of a phobia. You might read about someone else's experience, or hear a family member relate a scary experience. The fearful thoughts get programmed into your brain and from then on, exposure to the 'danger' will trigger your own phobia.

When the phobia is triggered, your brain sends a signal to your body that says, Hey, this is a dangerous situation!

Your body then goes on high alert, releasing adrenaline and cortisol into your bloodstream. Your heart rate speeds up, and your breathing becomes shallow and rapid. Blood flow to non-essential systems is reduced so that more blood can flow to your muscles, providing extra strength to 'fight or flee' the danger.

In a truly life-threatening situation, these physiological changes can save your life. In a situation that is not really dangerous,