Dentophobia, or fear of dental care and dentists, affects many people and can be caused by traumatic experiences or stress. Dentists can help by providing gentle care, explaining procedures, and offering options. Treatment options include therapy, meditation, and seeking out reputable dentists.
Dentophobia is a fear of dental care and, by extension, of people who provide dental care, such as dentists. This condition is also known as dental fear, odontophobia or dental anxiety. Surveys estimate that many people suffer from this condition to varying degrees and fortunately, there are an assortment of ways to treat and deal with dental phobia. For people with extreme dentophobia, it’s important to seek treatment, as untreated dental conditions can have serious medical repercussions.
There are a number of causes for dentophobia. Many people have traumatic experiences as children that cause them to develop a fear of dentists, for example, and others are just plain shy. Dental work can be stressful, especially when drills are involved, as it is accompanied by strange sensations and sounds, and dental procedures can leave behind lingering pain. The field of dentistry in general is often viewed negatively even by laymen, who trade horror stories about fears of teeth that can lead to or exaggerate dentophobia.
Many dentists are aware of dentophobia and some even advertise services specifically aimed at patients with the condition. Modern dentists tend to focus on providing very gentle and meticulous care, informing patients what they intend to do and how they will do it. To address dentophobia, dentists can also present a number of options for their patients, explaining various ways to approach a condition and being upfront about pain levels so patients don’t feel cheated.
For patients with extreme dentophobia, trips to the dentist are reserved for dental emergencies, which can actually make the dental fear worse. By only going to the dentist when a problem has become severe, people start linking trips to the dentist to extreme discomfort, thus worsening their condition. More commonly, people simply feel anxious before going to the dentist but continue to make routine dental care a part of their lives despite the effort; some people deal with anxiety by taking medications to help them relax before a trip to the dentist.
There are a variety of treatments for dentophobia. Going to a psychologist to talk about treatment options is a good idea, as a psychologist can help get to the root cause. Patients can also engage in meditation and hypnosis to address the problem. Seeking out reputable dentists and being frank with them about dentophobia is also highly recommended, as a dentist who is aware of a patient’s anxiety and fear can work to dispel it.
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