Why are they afraid to treat their teeth, the reasons and manifestations of such fear as dentophobia, ways of dealing with the fear of the dentist. Fear of a dentist is a panic fear of treating teeth, even if treatment is urgently needed or prevention of the oral cavity is simply needed, when at the mere thought that a tooth will be drilled and severe pain will appear, a person is horrified, even hysterical or loss of consciousness.
Description and types of dentophobia
Fear of the dentist or dentophobia (stomatophobia) is inherent in many people. They just have a pathological fear of going to a dental clinic. And then about the dentists. In the everyday sense, they are all "teeth". However, this is not quite true.
The dentist has secondary specialized training and does not undertake the treatment of complex diseases of the oral cavity. A dentist has a higher medical education, practically he treats all dental diseases. This is the difference.
All people, young and old, suffer from dentophobia. Children and adults, especially women, are afraid. According to statistics, one in ten people are afraid to go to the dentist. The reason is an acute toothache, when, for example, a sick tooth is drilled. There is simply no strength to take it out. Isn't this feeling familiar to everyone? Although nowadays there are painkillers, when the treatment takes place without pain at all, some people, even "on pain of death", refuse to go to the "zododer". This is already a pathological form of fear of the dentist, requiring correction of the psycho-emotional sphere.
As a result of research, it was found that dentophobia is:
- Hereditary … May be associated with abnormal intrauterine development of the fetus. When a child is born, at the genetic level, he has already formed a persistent fear of all kinds of pain. This is a serious mental disorder. Only a psychotherapist can help get rid of such a pathology. Provided that the patient works hard on himself, he takes psychotherapeutic procedures seriously.
- Acquired in the process of life … The most common. The reason for this phobia is a negative experience from visiting a dentist's office, for example, in childhood. The strongest pain, when the tooth was torn or drilled, remained in the memory. In the future - fear of going to the dentist, although dental "suffering" pesters. This is fraught with serious health consequences.
- Born of imagination … The man was told that the "zododery" do not know pity, they get pleasure when they pull their teeth and see how the person screams in pain. The media can also "add fuel to the fire." Sometimes articles appear that negatively highlight the work of dental surgeries. For example, a man was given an anesthetic injection, and he took it and died. After reading this, a person is afraid to visit the dentist. Such a contrived phobia can be removed without consulting a psychologist; it is enough to be treated by an attentive qualified dentist. The fear will recede and be forgotten.
It's important to know! Dentophobia sufferers turn to the dentist only when it is no longer possible to endure the pain. A late visit to the dentist can cause serious health problems.
Causes of Dentist Fear
We have already found out that the mechanism of the development of fear, which determines the fearful behavior of children and adults in the dentist's office, depends on internal and external factors. Let us consider the reasons for the development of stomatophobia in childhood and adulthood in more detail.
Causes of Dentist Fear in Children
The psyche of a child, especially under the age of 5, is not yet well-established, and therefore vulnerable. The kid can be very frightened by the "fierce" look of the doctor himself. If he is unsmiling and taciturn, he can’t tune the little patient to the need to endure a not very pleasant procedure, the child will get the impression that this is a “bad uncle-doctor”, he makes “painful”. Another option is that the parents were unable to adjust their child to endure the painful visit to the dentist. An unusual view of a doctor's office, a drill, that you need to open your mouth wider, and an unfamiliar guy painfully picks at it with a buzzing needle - such bad impressions can take hold for many years. And now a ready-made phobia - fear of a dentist. The cause of childhood fear can also be an association with something generally scary that threatens life. This is already from the field of deviations in mental development, here you need to show the child to a psychiatrist. Before you take your child to the dentist, you need to tune in to a persistent perception of the painful procedure. Here it is quite appropriate, for example, to say: "You are a brave man and you are not afraid of pain at all." Successful dental treatment in childhood will not cause fear of the dentist in the future.
Causes of Dentist Fear in Adults
In an adult, the reasons for being afraid to go to the dentist lie in the peculiarities of the psyche. Deep psychological reasons include:
- Fear of pain … This is when a person, even with light pressure, for example, experiences severe pain on the wrist. Such people are said to have a low pain threshold. What can we say then about going to the dentist's office? The mere idea of a toothache leads a person into a panic state.
- Blood intolerance … At the sight of it, a person can lose consciousness. When treating teeth, blood is often spat out with saliva. This is a reason not to go to the "toothbrush".
- Pathology in mental development … Abnormalities in the psyche make a person afraid to visit any doctor, including a dentist.
There are external psychological reasons why they are afraid to visit the dentist. All of them are largely contrived, and some are even comical. It is not easy for those suffering from toothache, but this is their choice. Let's take a closer look at these imaginary reasons:
- Bad treatment experience … To a greater extent, this is due to an oversight of the attending physician. I did not warn that it would hurt, but that an anesthetic injection should be given. He touched a nerve, the man could not stand it and screamed. This is how the fear of visiting the dentist was formed.
- Bad teeth … A person has sick, rotten teeth, he is ashamed to show them, because he is afraid of dentists.
- Women are afraid of male dentists … Some of the fair sex do not want to drop their dignity in the eyes of men. And then open your mouth and show your teeth. How "great" they will look with bad teeth! This situation is very comical, but inherent in other ladies.
- Bad reviews of dentists … They can be both at the household level - "the neighbor said", and in the media, when, for example, newspaper articles tell "horror stories" about lethal cases associated with visiting a dental clinic.
- Unsuccessfully treated by one doctor, fear of going to the dentist … The pain that a patient experienced, for example, during a surgical operation, makes him afraid of all other doctors.
- In the dentist's office, a person feels helpless … He is not the master of his position, he is told what to do, and even to sit with his mouth open … This causes serious discomfort, there is a reluctance to go to the dentist.
It's important to know! Only a thorough "debriefing" - where and why the fear of dental treatment appeared, will help to understand how to get rid of dentophobia.
Manifestations of dentophobia in humans
There are many external signs of dentophobia, and they are manifested in each person in different ways. Consider the most typical human reactions as a result of such a neurosis as fear of the dentist:
- Panic state … From the very thought that you need to go to have your teeth treated, an uncontrollable fear attacks a person. He is in confusion, fussing, shaking hands and feet.
- Hypertonicity … When muscle tension rises. This constrains movement, causes discomfort, it seems that the muscles are tight and it is impossible to relax them.
- Refusal to communicate with the dentist … Even to the detriment of your health. “Let it all go to waste! I will not go to the doctor! Your teeth will ache and maybe they will stop."
- Loss of self-control … Fear of going to a doctor makes you lose your objectivity. The pain is unbearable, but it's still scary to go to have your teeth treated.
- Headache … It appears with a strong overstrain of the nervous system from the very thought that you need to go to the dentist.
- Faults in the work of the heart … They occur during prolonged stressful situations. Let's say a person does not go to an orthopedic dentist to get prosthetics. The teeth are worn out to an extreme degree, it is impossible to eat, and he is terrified of the dentist.
- Stomach upset … Fear of the dentist leads to disruption of the digestive tract. Vomiting and diarrhea, other malfunctions of vital organs may appear.
- Feeling helpless … The fear of the dentist paralyzes the will, the person feels weak, powerless.
There are cases when they could not provide dental care only because already in the doctor's office a person had a pronounced panic attack of fear, accompanied by one of the listed symptoms. This is already a severe neurotic condition - dentophobia.
It's important to know! Dentophobia is treated, for this it is necessary to consult a psychotherapist.
Ways to Deal with Dentist Fear
Before dealing with dentophobia, you should study the most effective ways. If the neurosis has not gone too far, has not caused much damage to health, you can try to get rid of the fear of the dentist yourself. Let us consider in more detail the methods of such a struggle.
Self-help to get rid of dentophobia
To start self-treatment of dentophobia, you need to understand the reason for your fear. You can put all your fears in a table and put a score against each that characterizes the level of anxiety, for example, from 1 to 5. For example: "I am very afraid when a dental nerve is removed" - 5, "I'm afraid of the sound of a drill" - 3, and so Further. Having analyzed all your phobias and highlighting the most painful ones, you should begin to fight them. And here self-massage, aromatherapy, relaxing music, and other methods of psychotherapy that can be done at home will come to the rescue.
For example, under a relaxing melody, you need to convince yourself that the fear of the dentist is in vain, thousands of people go to have their teeth treated and nothing bad happens to them. This constant exercise will help banish anxious thoughts and tune in to a "heroic" visit to the dental clinic. It's important to know! The more a person pulls with a visit to the dentist, the worse his dental condition will be, and this will affect his health (bad breath, stomach problems, etc.).
Psychotherapy against the fear of the dentist
If an independent attempt to get rid of the fear of the dentist has not been successful, psychological help is needed. Only a psychotherapist, having familiarized himself with the problem, will advise the patient on the necessary psychotherapeutic method that will help get rid of dentophobia. The most successful treatments for various phobias are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), gestalt therapy, and hypnosis. All of them are aimed at correcting thoughts and behavior. During special sessions, the patient admits that the problem exists, comprehends it and reconsiders his attitude towards it. In the subconscious, an installation is developed and fixed on how to get rid of dentophobia. The difference between hypnosis and other techniques lies in the fact that during hypnotic sessions the idea is suggested and fixed that dentophobia is dangerous and only harmful to health. It's important to know! The help of a psychotherapist is needed only when dentophobia has gone too far, and the person suffering from such fear is determined to get rid of it.
Sedation as a method of combating dentophobia
To treat teeth in a dream is a Dentoboph's dream! But today it is quite possible. To do this, you need to get to the right dental clinic (since not everyone has a license).
Sedation is the most modern painless method for treating teeth while half asleep. True, not cheap at all. Depending on the sedative (sedative) drugs used, one hour of treatment can cost from 5 to 9 thousand rubles. The price is affected by the cost of the medicine, which can be in the form of a cocktail (usually for children), pills or an injection. After the introduction of sedatives, the patient falls asleep, relaxes and does not feel pain at all. At this time, the doctor treats the teeth. There is an anesthesiologist nearby, it is he who monitors the patient's condition and, when necessary, takes him out of medication sleep. This method is especially effective when treating children. There are requirements for sedation: before the procedure, you do not need to eat for 4 hours, you need to make sure that the nose is not blocked (so that you can breathe easily during sleep). There are restrictions on the use of sedative drugs, but they are not as strict as, say, in relation to strong narcotic drugs.
Features of the sedation method:
- Herbal hypnotics are used. Let's say, based on valerian or motherwort. It is not harmful to health, and there are no undesirable side effects.
- Light nap during treatment. The patient reacts to the doctor's words and follows his instructions. In special cases, sleep can be deep when there is no reaction to the doctor's words.
- Fear disappears. All worries about dental treatment are forgotten. In fact, the patient is relieved of his panic in front of the dentist.
If someone thinks that sedation is akin to narcotic effects, note that the differences are big. After anesthesia, they go away hard, several hours. Taking sedatives to exclude this. Coming out of medication sleep, the patient feels good and can go about his business almost immediately. Sedation options vary:
- Inhalation … The patient is put on a special mask, through the nose he breathes in a special mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. This has a calming effect, without fear, all the instructions of the attending physician are followed.
- Taking sedatives … There may be cocktails or pills. After them comes a light medication sleep, which is constantly monitored by the anesthesiologist. The degree of relaxation is higher, but the sensitivity to the doctor's words remains.
- Intravenous injection … After the introduction of, say, propofol through a catheter, medication sleep of moderate severity sets in, the patient may no longer respond to the doctor's commands. And when the anesthesiologist takes him out of this state, he does not remember the treatment procedure.
- Deep dream … Akin to anesthesia, but easier to tolerate. A patient is put into this state when it is believed that light medication sleep will not be effective.
It's important to know! The only significant drawback of sedation is that it is not allowed in all dental clinics, and where it is, it is expensive. How to overcome the fear of the dentist - watch the video:
Dentist fear is a common neurosis. He gives a lot of unpleasant troubles for people suffering from such a phobia. And the sooner a person realizes his unsightly position and begins to fight his pathological fear of treating his teeth, the better for him. There are many ways to get rid of dentophobia. One has only to really want to eliminate this problem, which is far from harmless to health. And a positive result - getting rid of the fear of the dentist - will definitely be!
