Odontophobia: This Is The Extreme Fear Of The Dentist, And Its Treatment

You have had discomfort in your mouth for a long time, your gums are bleeding, you have been postponing your annual oral cleaning for more than three years and tartar is accumulating, you think you may be starting to develop periodontitis, and you know that there is only one way to solve it All this, you have no choice… but just by imagining it, you get panic, insurmountable fear, you try to convince yourself that it really isn’t so necessary to go and you are willing to endure this situation rather than entering a dentist’s office. .

In this article we are going to talk about a phobia that is much more common than you think: odontophobia, the irrational fear of going to the dentist a problem that can trigger several serious health complications.

What is odontophobia? Differentiate between anxiety and phobia

As we have mentioned previously, odontophobia is the irrational and persistent fear of going to the dentist. To be considered a phobia, this fear must last for at least six months.

We must clarify that it is not the same to talk about the anxiety that we can all feel before going to the dentist (something very common in society, not only in children) and another thing is to talk about a phobia of the dentist (odontophobia). Whether we like it or not, sometimes going to the dentist is uncomfortable due to the invasive intervention they usually perform, since the mouth is a very sensitive area. It is normal and adaptive that in some way our body detects that there is a “danger”, and as a consequence anxiety is activated to “flight” or “fight”. However, odontophobia is something much more serious for the person who suffers from it, since very negatively affects your quality of life

A differentiating element between having a simple state of anxiety and having odontophobia will be the extent to which the person actively avoids going to the dentist even though it is really necessary for them to go. A very appropriate analogy to understand this is to compare it with the phobia of airplanes. Many people feel anxiety before flying, but it doesn’t go any further and they get on the plane without the need for alternative measures. People with a phobia of flying will avoid getting on a plane as much as possible, and whenever possible they will take alternative transportation, even if this objectively harms them (economically, time, etc.).

In the case of the person with odontophobia, to the extent possible will avoid going to the dentist at all costs while the person with anxiety will face it without giving it much importance, despite the discomfort or pain they may feel.

Symptoms of extreme fear of the dentist

People with odontophobia are generally afraid of invasive procedures (being punctured, surgery, tooth extraction, anesthesia, drill…). They experience great anxiety , which can lead to increased sensitivity to pain. Some authors relate odontophobia or dental phobia with the phobia of SID (Blood-Injection-Damage).

They are afraid of suffering pain, and in some cases they are afraid of having a panic attack at the time of the intervention. As a result of fear, patients often tense their muscles , even those on the face. Sometimes there may be hypersensitivity to the choking reflex, especially in men. Choking occurs when trying to put objects in the person’s mouth or by putting pressure on the throat, making medical intervention difficult or impossible.

In the most severe cases of odontophobia with hypersensitivity to the choking reflex The stimuli that cause choking are expanded: thinking about the dentist, the smell of the dentist’s utensils, brushing your teeth, wearing turtlenecks, etc.

Causes

In general, the causes of any specific phobia, such as odontophobia, are explained by three important factors (Barlow, 2002): biological vulnerability, generalized psychological vulnerability and specific psychological vulnerability. We are going to focus especially on specific psychological vulnerability, since it is usually the one that plays the greatest role in odontophobia.

This would be related to a direct negative learning experience, based on direct conditioning More specifically, it would be the typical scene of a child who goes through a negative experience at the dentist and from then on the dentist conditions the pain or phobic stimulus, and which generalizes to other stimuli (e.g., white coat, the smell of a dentist, seeing the materials…).

Logically, the severity and frequency of these negative experiences (feeling that every time you go to the dentist you have a very unpleasant or moderately negative experience) and an infrequent exposure to the situation after the negative experience (increasingly expanding the frequency with which we go to the dentist due to the aversion and fear it generates in us: avoidance) are the most important variables for the development of this specific phobia.

Fortunately, nowadays dentists’ interventions are less invasive and painful than a few years ago, the result of technological innovation and the use of finer and more painless utensils.

How do you overcome it? Treatment

Live Exposure is one of the most effective treatments for dental phobia or odontophobia. If the person has uncontrollable fear, it may be useful to start with exposure exercises in imagination or watch videos about dentists, to continue with live exposure when the patient feels more prepared.

During live exposure it is important that the patient feels that he has the possibility of controlling the feared stimulus through signals previously agreed upon with the dentist (e.g., deciding when he wants to be pricked, stopping the drill). It is important that there is a high degree of predictability, that is, that it is the patient who controls the situation and knows what is going to happen at all times.

Obviously it is better that the client chooses a trusted dentist and have special empathy towards the difficult situation that the person is going through, since surely your intervention will require patience and special care. The dentist has to explain the procedures to follow, what the next step will be, and apply the appropriate anesthesia for each case.

In cases of odontophobia also it is useful to train the patient in controlled breathing or applied relaxation especially when the somatic reactions of intense fear produce muscle tension or tension in the throat).