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Afraid of the dentist? You can do that against dental phobia! >

Afraid of the dentist? You can do that against dental phobia! >

Fear of the dentist

General / basic

Fear of the dentist is common. According to various surveys, three out of four respondents fear the dentist. Like every form of fear, fear of the dentist is nothing unusual at first. After all, there are certainly more pleasant situations than lying relatively helplessly on a folded back chair and letting someone fiddle in his mouth. However, around forty percent of the respondents postponed their visit to the dentist until they suffered severe pain. The fact that delaying the visit often aggravates the dental problems and thus the treatment is often overlooked. In about every twentieth, fear ultimately means that they no longer go to the dentist for fear of dental treatment. Such exaggerated fear can be attributed to various causes and is often not comprehensible for the environment. Sufferers often react with shame and restraint, there are numerous therapeutic options, approaches and options that can alleviate or overcome fear.

causes

The cause of a special fear of dentists can be bad childhood experiences. More specifically: fear of the dentist can be triggered by a delayed trauma from a previous one-time visit to the dentist or by exaggerated stories from the area and parents who are afraid of treatment. The cause of the trauma is given most often, the second most frequently cited reason for postponing the visit to the dentist is the fear of injections. In general, patients who already suffer from anxiety disorders tend to develop a fear of the dentist. For example, patients affected by social phobia can often not trust themselves to see the dentist at all, or simply cannot trust the doctor and his staff. Also, several rather negative visits to the dentist can simply lead to conditioning of the patient, who becomes anxious before and during the treatment and may experience pain. The fear of pain is almost always associated with this. Once you have taken a seat and the dentist’s chair is folded back, you often feel that you are being delivered and without any means of influence or escape. The fear is also exacerbated by the fact that it is often difficult or even impossible for the patient to understand what is happening.

symptoms

The symptoms are therefore the delay of visits to the dentist, the deliberate invention of excuses or the complete abandonment of visits to the dentist. Signs can represent sweats or panic attacks. A gag reflex that occurs during a visit to the dentist, which in the opinion of the person concerned makes future treatments “impossible”, as well as the accusation that dentists only want to “make money” anyway can be considered symptoms. A dentist phobia must be diagnosed, especially in connection with toothache, which then fatally would rather be accepted in the long run rather than seeing a doctor.

diagnosis

Before the dentist phobia is diagnosed, the person concerned must first perceive the fear as such and overcome himself to see a doctor. This often happens late, namely at the stage when the fear of the dentist, but also the fear of the fear itself, has already led to such serious dental problems that they can no longer be ignored and / or in your own environment noticeable. The more optimal step would be to start therapy before the development of avoidance behavior in order to avoid future stress, pain and treatment costs. Men in particular often find it more difficult than women. To help overcome the sense of shame often felt by those affected, initial conversations with trusted persons or anonymous internet forums dedicated to the topic can be used.

therapy

If you are afraid of the dentist, switching to a dentist with additional training as a psychotherapist can be very useful. These often offer different ways of dealing with fear. Above all, they are more trained in the situation and convey in more detail what they are doing. One way to reduce stress, for example, is to listen to music or watch films during treatment, as this drowns out the drilling noises and distracts your attention from the situation.

There are also dentists now who send them to relax in a kind of fantasy world, while others also use hypnosis to distract and relax them even better. Which type of therapy is most helpful should be decided in dialogue with the therapist. Behavioral therapies or relaxation exercises such as autogenic training are also offered for anxiety relief. Hypnotherapy can also be used to work through what has been experienced and what has been repressed, and thus the causes of fear.

In acute or initially therapy-resistant cases, general anesthesia is a solution, but it should only be administered by a trained anesthetist and therefore not by every dentist. However, anesthesia is always more risky than local anesthesia, which is why other options should be preferred if possible, especially when there are several upcoming treatments – a consultation with the health insurance provider is also recommended if necessary.
It should also be noted that there are numerous ways to relieve pain at the dentist these days. Even in front of the actual anesthetic syringe, the injection site can be sprayed with an anesthetic spray or cream so that it is no longer noticed. If there is a lot of excitement, a doctor can ask for a sedative or painkiller beforehand.

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Christina Cherry
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