Do you avoid going to the dentist, even in the midst of severe dental pain? Would you rather let a tooth rot away than have a cavity filled or an extraction performed? What happens when you do have to visit your dentist? Does an empty pit develop in the center of your stomach? Do your hands start sweating? Maybe your head starts spinning just a bit? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are one of the many people who suffer from a dental phobia.
Fear of the dentist is not uncommon. Millions of people from all walks of life feel the exact same way you do about going to the dentist. The question is, are you going to settle for living with your fear or are you going to overcome it?
Being afraid of the dentist is never a good thing. You should be visiting your dentist twice a year if you want to maintain proper dental health. If you have a dental phobia, chances are you’re not even coming close to that schedule and even as you’re reading this, your teeth and your gums may be in jeopardy. The good news is that you don’t have to live with this fear of dentists any longer. You can overcome your fear of the dentist.
Imagine what it would be like to:
- Make an appointment with your dentist without feeling any anxiety or apprehension at all.
- Go to your dental appointment with a feeling of complete serenity and calmness.
- Relax in the dentist’s waiting room without a worry in your mind.
- Sit in the dental chair and without feeling any tension or pain whatsoever.
- Recover quickly after the dental work is done.
Uses of hypnosis for dental patients:
1. Elimination of the patient's tension, anxiety or fear of pain and related discomfort.
2. Accustoming the patient to orthodontic or prosthetic appliances after the patient has agreed to accept them.
3. Maintenance of the patient's comfort during long and arduous periods of dental work.
4. Modification of unwanted dental habits, such as bruxism, the unconscious grinding of teeth.
5. Reduction of anesthesia or analgesia during dental procedures.
6. Elimination of fear of needles.
7. Prevention of gagging and nausea.
8. Control of salivary flow.
9. Control of bleeding.
Occasionally, a dental patient presents his/her dentist with a history of hypersensitivity to local anesthetic agents. The symptoms may include immediate reactions to the injection procedure (dizziness, shortness of breath, tachycardia, etc), or delayed reactions to the anesthetic (swelling, hives, etc). Although the true incidence of local anesthetic allergy is low, such a history often involves the patient's anxiety regarding the use of the drug in question, and the dentist's apprehension to treat the "problematic" patient. In such cases, hypnosis can play a major role in controlling pain and the associated distress.
