Editor's note: Updated March 2022
Dental hygiene school is hard. There’s no denying that fact. It’s truly difficult to explain to anyone else if they’ve never been there before, but as you know, there is little time for anything beyond eating, sleeping, and breathing dental hygiene.
While this can be exciting and truly a sign of being passionate about your profession-to-be, it unfortunately tends to carry the burden of stress and anxiety along with it. For some, this is the first dose of feeling true anxiety and it can be difficult to understand how to navigate it. Some seek answers, some try to overcome it on their own, and others will try to completely ignore it.
Typically, the thought is that once graduation comes, we are free from these feelings, but we quickly learn that they usually follow us into private practice as well.
So, what does anxiety feel like? One of the reasons people react differently to their anxieties is because no one person feels anxiety the same. Oftentimes those who are working to ignore their anxiety aren’t sure that this is what they’re actually experiencing; others may be hyperaware of their anxiety and already working toward appropriate management methods. Determining where you are on this scale is no easy task. "The feelings of anxiety can range from low levels of fear or apprehension, mild sensations of muscle tightness and sweating, or doubts about your ability to complete a task.”1
Related reading:
How yoga therapy can help you get that "hygiene smile"
Mental health for the dental professional
Anxiety is a part of our natural stress response. I hate to be the bearer of what might seem like bad news, but we cannot eliminate stress, nor would we want to—let me explain. There are multiple types of stress, good (eustress) and bad (distress), and anxiety falls into both of these categories. Believe it or not, we need a balance of both types to be able to function, and the major cause of our stress response is due to the fight-or-flight response. This automatic physiological reaction is necessary for survival, so we wouldn’t want to eliminate it, we’d actually want to learn how to manage it.
Did you know that we all have a stress personality? You may be familiar with personality trait tests, like DISC or enneagram, but less commonly known is our stress-personality type. Taking a stress-personality quiz can help you better understand how to manage your stressors and improve your reaction to them, therefore reducing your anxiety. While some quizzes are very comprehensive, here is an easy and short quiz that can give you some quick insight on your stress-personality.
Another option is to keep a daily journal to track your stress and anxiety levels (scale them 1-10) and for anything rated 6 and above, write the reasoning for that elevated level. Indicate how you addressed or reacted to the situation (maybe you didn’t do anything, that is a type of reaction). This will help you identify patterns that are typical for you. Once you become aware of your own tendencies and reactions, you can take steps in proactively managing them. Management techniques will differ based on if the source of your anxiety or stress is short-term (acute) or long-term (chronic).
Acute stress: In the moment, an acute stress situation can be scary. This is your normal fight-or-flight response characterized by a racing heart, sweaty palms, dry mouth, and many more symptoms. This can be considered to be an anxiety or panic attack depending on the severity of the symptoms.
Grounding techniques are a beneficial set of management techniques to help you stabilize your emotions during an acute stress experience. They will help you reset enough to think clearly through the short-term, complete a task or interaction, and plan for a longer-term solution. A couple of grounding techniques that you can easily implement are:
- Immerse your hands in water: Doing this helps to create an instant break in the anxiety-caused tunnel vision. It is enough to help recenter you in the moment. Head to a nearby sink and just run the water over your hands for a short time. You can even implement some mindfulness techniques to calm you by thinking to yourself: how does the water feel trickling over my fingertips, what’s the temperature like, how does it sound?
- 5-4-3-2 Method: Using your senses, take a look around and observe 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch (actually touch them), 3 things you can hear, and 2 things you can smell. This simple and quick exercise will help to remind you of your current reality and surroundings, bringing you back to the now and away from your intrusive thoughts.
There's a wide variety of grounding techniques and you can choose which work best for you.
Chronic stress: Chronic stress is troublesome because it is likely to create wear and tear on the body over time. It may even require some more in-depth treatment, such as anxiety medication or therapy.
First, we want to work with our foundation of wellness, because if our bodies are not well this results in a fundamental level of stress. Be sure to get an adequate amount of sleep every night, stay well hydrated, avoid excess caffeine, and implement some form of exercise (even just a short walk!) three to five days of the week. Since stress and anxiety are physiological processes, making sure our overall daily health needs are met will alleviate extra strain caused from these sources. From here, we can implement techniques to relieve our anxiety. Here are two helpful techniques to try:
- “I’m nervous I’m not good enough/I will fail.” What the mind hears often repeated is what the mind believes to be true. Words of affirmation are a fantastic tool to train your brain into thinking positively and bringing these positive new thoughts to reality. You can find thousands of examples with a quick Google search, or create your own! Repeat throughout the day—make it your phone background, put a sticky note in your car, repeat it to your reflection in the mirror. It might sound silly, but we attract what we believe!
- “I’m worried that…” Worry is the most common emotion associated with anxiety. The problem with worry is that it is usually based on unlikely predictions or “what-ifs.” If you find worry taking up your brain’s real estate, make a worry/reality list (sort of like a pros and cons list). List your worry on one side of the paper and then the reality on the other side of the paper. For example, on the left column put your worry “I’m worried that I’m going to fail my exam,” and on the right side, put the reality “I’ve prepared thoroughly for this exam and I know the material well. I almost never fail exams.” This shows you that your worry is likely unjustified by the evidence of the reality, creating the opportunity for relief. It’s like debate club, but it’s you vs. you.
While we can’t completely eliminate stress or anxiety, we can certainly take some of the steps above to help manage and reduce it. Reduced anxiety will not only help you in your educational or clinical performance, it will also help you improve your quality of life: a true win-win! Just like in dental hygiene care, no one is one-size-fits all in what will work, so keep trying new things until you find what might be the best option for you. Some words of affirmation to get you started: I am an intelligent, confident, and competent provider.
Reference
1. Fight or flight response. Psychology Tools. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/fight-or-flight-response/
