Why are people afraid of the dentist?

People are afraid of the dentist because of stories about what happened in the olden days when dentists used to just pull teeth out and not use drugs to stop the pain.

Another reason is when you are waiting for your appointment with the dentist and you hear scraping and loud drilling noises which intimidates people and makes them think that they will have their teeth drilled and that it will cause a lot of pain.

You imagine the worst that could happen and so when you go, you feel terrifyed and I'm sure that most of the dentists notice that. But when whatever you went in there for happens, you feel better than when you come in and you tell others about what happened.

If you needed to get braces or something, you would exaggerate it to people at school to make it sound like you are really brave, other people overhear and that's how the scared feeling continues for other people.