Dentophobia – a state of mind!

Giving in to your will that answers in the negative when you need to go to the dentist may lead to severe consequences. Submitting yourself to the fear of going through dental treatments can result in a worsening of the troubling issues so that then you have to undergo an even harsher procedure. The fear that so long held you back from going through a check-up will then actually have to be met with. TheNational Health Service, UK, has made an extensive study to uncover the fact that nearly 12% of British population experience abnormal fears to go to the dentist. Indeed, the number of people coming up with dental troubles has been reportedly low in the office in Santa Rosa which can issue from the obvious fact that those who suffer from ‘dentophobia’ will not turn up.

The procedure of injecting sedatives before carrying out dental procedure, though, has proved to be effective, making use of sedatives in these minor treatments does not sound practicable, given the more aggressive nature of the technique. However, the British Health Association has come up with a new procedure that can substitute the sedation-procedure. A test was performed with 21 subjects who responded positively to the CBT or the Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Out of these 21, 19 refused to go through the sedative-method. The therapy was apparently successful. But when this study was performed for about ten years it ultimately showed a substitution of the sedative method by the therapy.

Now, it would do good to state that CBT refers to a treatment that lines up with psychotherapy. The therapy has successfully warded off the dental fears as it makes you relate the method of dentistry to some amusing experience as to watch a Woody Allen movie sitting on leather couches. This therapy when applied to other phobias too, like that of a manic depression, or the fear of speaking before people or, as in most of the cases, a fear to go to the dentist, work wonders.

Now a study of the procedure of the CBT reveals a process that works by breaking the fears down to smaller parts that can be managed. If we take, for example, a person suffering from ‘dentophobia’, we will notice that the fear originates from the drill, or to be more specific, the sound of the process. One way to deal with this is to fit in earplugs or making the sound lower. Measuring the fear against thoughts, behavior and feeling, the patient learns to put off the fear.

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