You know it’s coming sooner or later. The checkup. The surprise cavity. The dreaded root canal.What if they don’t give you enough Novocain? Once you’re locked into that chair it can often feel like the beginning of long, painful marathon.Chances are the worst you can imagine is simply that – your imagination. Even if you’ve been to dentist before and you are worrying about impending dental surgery, it’s very important that you face any valid concerns head on.Dealing with the dental anxiety, even small levels of anxiety have an ability to create a physiological response in the body. This may end up affecting other bodily processes like breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. The anticipation of the experience beforehand may cause problems directly with dental procedures themselves. For this reason alone, it’s best to talk with a dentist first about the issues.With that said, the first thing to do is choose your dentist wisely. It helps to see a few happy smiling pictures of your dentist’s past patients and maybe some glowing reviews. If you’re not getting that warm fuzzy feeling from the choices available, you should try asking family or friends for referrals. Plus, this adds an additional layer of comfort when the source is someone you can trust.Additionally, you want to be exploring other avenues of stress relief like meditation, acupuncture, aromatherapy, or sauna sessions to sweat out toxins to increase overall well-being.There is however, one caveat. It is never a good idea to use any type of drugs or alcohol to calm the nerves in advance of the dentist visit. Drinking alcohol may result in complications due to the fact that it’s a blood thinner.Depending on the dental work being done, this could potentially affect the clotting process adversely. Any non-prescription drugs in the body which should otherwise not be there may cause further side effects.It’s also important that you’re getting enough sleep. If you’re used to running on fumes, maybe this is your body letting you know that it needs to relax. With increased stress levels come higher levels of cortisol release, so you might encounter other issues like teeth grinding. Naturally, this is going to further prevent a good night’s rest.You can actually buy a dental night guard from J&S Dental Lab which specifically remedies the grinding issues.  If you end up running into problems using standard sizes, you can place a custom order depending on mouth and jaw size. Read more about ordering a custom night guard here for additional resources.Last but not least. One of the best ways to alleviate anxiety is to schedule regular checkups. When you are catching dental problems before they become bigger problems then you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches.In fact, the fear of what could happen at the dentist is going to be worse than the experience itself. Remember “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt. Wise words indeed.