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Underlying Causes of Dental Phobia

By: Andrew Moss

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We all have a degree of fear of something or a number of things. A great fear is referred to as a phobia; your body has an inbuilt mechanism of fight-or-flight when confronted with the threatening stimulus.

One such stimulus is the fear of dental care and fear of pain associated with it, otherwise called dental phobia.

Dental phobia refers to the general fear of dentistry and of receiving dental care. A pathological form of specific phobia is variously called dental fear, dentophobia, dentist phobia, or dental anxiety. It is a very common anxiety, that often involves other fears that are more defined, specific, and individual. One of these fears is the fear of pain and research suggests that about 20% of dental phobics have a concurrent psychiatric disorder, notably Generalized Anxiety Disorder, agoraphobia, depression, and emetophobia.
According to this research, women tend to experience more degree of dental fear than men, and younger people report being more dental phobic than older people. Sufferers from this phobia explain this behavior on a prior painful memory when they were young.

They remember the visit as particularly traumatic, difficult, and/or painful one. However, painful or traumatic the dental visit experience, it is not enough to cause dental phobia. Below is a list of other indirect experiences that may result to dental phobia:
Indirect Causes Of Dental Phobia


  • Explicit learning: Extreme degree of dental fear may develop, as people hear about other's traumatic experiences or negative views of dentistry through vicarious learning.

  • Mass media: The negative reporting of dentistry in mass media and cartoons in printed medias may also contribute to the development of dental phobia.

  • Stimulus Generalization: A previous traumatic experience in a non-dental context may also cause one to develop fear towards dental procedure. A bad experience with a clinician for example, or unpleasant hospital physical environment, may lead people to fear of white coats and antiseptic smells. This is one reason why dentists nowadays often choose to wear less "threatening" apparel.

  • Helplessness and Perceived Lack of Control: Most of the people love to have control over circumstances in their life and if a person believes that they have no means of influencing a negative event, they will experience helplessness. This lack of control is reported to be the lead cause of fear and the perception that the dentist will stop when the patient gives a stop signal lessens fear.



How Is Dental Phobia Measured?

There are various instruments used to diagnose phobia of dental care and they include such fear instrument as Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) and a shorter version, the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS). However, if you suffer from Dental Phobia, you won't find it too hard to beat the high score; the symptoms will be a good indicator. Your body will response with such symptoms as shortness of breath, breathing difficulties, and anxiety at the mere thought of visiting the dentist.

Last Call!

Whatever the cause of this situation, you don’t have to be scared to visit the dentist. Stop by great websites such as www.preemtivehealing.com for outstanding anesthesia practices and techniques that are designed to free your mind of dental phobia. Save your Dental health!

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Visit www.preemptivehealing.com for more information about PreEmptive Healing and Dr Anthony J. DeMarco, the creator of this very successful healing programme.

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