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Dental fear refers to the fear of dentistry and of receiving dental care. A pathological form of this fear (specific phobia) is variously called dental phobia, odontophobia, dentophobia, dentist phobia, or dental anxiety. However, it has been suggested that the term “dental phobia” is often a misnomer, as many people with this condition do not feel their fears to be excessive or unreasonable and resemble individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder, caused by previous traumatic dental experiences.[1]
It is estimated that as many as 75% of US adults experiences some degree of dental fear, from mild to severe.[2][3] [4] Approximately 5 to 10 percent of U.S. adults are considered to experience dental phobia; that is, they are so fearful of receiving dental treatment that they avoid dental care at all costs.[5] Many dentally fearful people will only seek dental care when they have a dental emergency, such as a toothache or dental abscess. People who are very fearful of dental care often experience a “cycle of avoidance,” in which they avoid dental care due to fear until they experience a dental emergency requiring invasive treatment, which can reinforce their fear of dentistry.[6]
Women tend to report more dental fear than men,[7] and younger people tend to report being more dentally fearful than older individuals.[8] People tend to report being more fearful of more invasive procedures, such as oral surgery, than they are of less invasive treatment, such as professional dental cleanings, or prophylaxis.[9]
Many people report that their dental fear began after a traumatic, difficult, and/or painful dental experience.[10] However, painful or traumatic dental experiences alone do not explain why people develop dental phobia. The perceived manner of the dentist is an important variable. Dentists who were considered “impersonal”, “uncaring”, “uninterested” or “cold” were found to result in high dental fear in students, even in the absence of painful experiences, whereas some students who had had painful experiences failed to develop dental fear if they perceived their dentist as caring and warm.[11]
Dental fear may also develop as people hear about others’ traumatic experiences or negative views of dentistry.[12]
Treatments for dental fear often include a combination of behavioral and pharmacological techniques. Specialized dental fear clinics, such as those at the University of Washington in Seattle and Göteborg University in Sweden, use both psychologists and dentists to help people learn to manage and decrease their fear of dental treatment. The goal of these clinics is to provide individuals with the fear management skills necessary for them to receive regular dental care with a minimum of fear or anxiety. Although specialized clinics exist to help individuals manage and overcome their fear of dentistry, many dental providers outside of such clinics use similar behavioral and cognitive strategies to help patients reduce their fear.
Behavioral treatments include teaching individuals relaxation techniques, such as diaphragmatic breathing and progressive muscle relaxation, as well as cognitive, or thought-based techniques, such as cognitive restructuring and guided imagery.[4] Both relaxation and cognitive strategies have been shown to significantly reduce dental fear.[13] One example of a behavioral technique is systematic desensitization, a method used in psychology to overcome phobias and other anxiety disorders.[14] This is also sometimes called graduated exposure therapy or gradual exposure. For example, for a patient who is fearful of dental injections, the therapist first teaches relaxation skills to the patient, then gradually introduces the feared object (in this case, the needle and/or syringe) to the patient, encouraging the patient to manage his/her fear using the relaxation skills previously taught. The patient progresses through the steps of receiving a dental injection while using the relaxation skills, until the patient is able to successfully receive a dental injection while experiencing little to no fear. This method has been shown to be effective in treating fear of dental injections.[15] Cognitive restructuring , if applied in a non-threatening situation, might be an useful alternative as a first step after years of avoidance of dental care and less threatening than immediate exposure to the feared stimuli.[16]
It is interesting to take into account the views of people who have been provided with behavioural treatments for dental fear. From a psychologist’s perspective, techniques such as graded exposure, relaxation techniques or challenging catastrophic thinking are important. However, Gerry Kent, a clinical psychologist from the University of Sheffield UK, notes that from the patient’s perspective, interventions can be conceptualized quite differently.[17] He argues that high levels of anxiety or phobia should not be considered as residing simply within the individual or in the individual’s perceptions of dental care, but more within the relationship with the dentist. For example, when patients who had successfully completed a cognitive-behavioural programme were asked what had helped them to tolerate treatment, they mentioned factors such as the provision of information, the time taken, being put in control by the dentist, and the dentist understanding and listening to their concerns.[18] Such findings suggest that an interpersonal model of anxiety and anxiety-reduction is useful when trying to understand and treat dental fears.
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