Adenophobia. What is the fear of hospitals and doctors called? Panic fear of the dentist what to do

Social phobias are characterized by an increased degree of danger to a person.

Phobic conditions in this category can become cause of death patient because of his obsessive fears.

One of the social phobias is the fear of doctors or iatrophobia.

Fear of a medical facility and specialists in white coats can provoke inability to provide a person with timely medical assistance. The sight of doctors delivers not only internal discomfort, but also causes a panic attack.

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What is the name of?

In medical practice, the fear of doctors is denoted by the term "iatrophobia".

This phobic condition is one of the most. Children and elderly patients are especially susceptible to fear of doctors.

Psychological trauma suffered in childhood when visiting the office of a specialist in a white coat, they can not only persist for life, but also turn into a mental disorder.

In older people, the fear of doctors is more often associated with or diagnosing.

What are the manifestations?

Fear of doctors can manifest itself in a short-term or permanent form. In the first case, fear arises immediately before a visit to a specialist, in the second case, anxiety is caused even thinking about visiting a medical facility(without such a need).

The manifestation of a phobia depends on the degree of violation of the emotional state. In most cases, a phobia is accompanied not only by internal experiences, but also by physiological signs.

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Varieties

The term "iatrophobia" is a generic name for a phobia in which there is a fear of doctors regardless of their profile as well as medical institutions.

Exists many varieties of phobic conditions, implying fear of representatives of specific professions (dentists, gynecologists, etc.), as well as anxiety about the procedures that are carried out in hospitals.

Varieties of fear of doctors and related phobic conditions:

• dental phobia (fear of dentists);
• nosocomephobia (fear of hospitals);
• tomophobia (fear of surgery);
• hemophobia (fear of blood);
• pharmacophobia (fear of taking medications);
• nosophobia (fear of contracting a disease).

Causes in adults and children

provoke Numerous factors can cause iatrophobia. This type of phobia can be transmitted at the genetic level.

For example, if one of the parents is afraid of dentists, then the child may get an innate fear of the representatives of this profession.

The following factors can provoke iatrophobia:

Why are people afraid of the dentist?

The fear of dentists in medical practice is denoted by the term "dentophobia".

This phobic condition is one of the most common phobias associated with doctors.

In childhood, fear can provoke a large number of incomprehensible objects used by representatives of this profession, as well as transferred during the procedure. pain.

In adulthood, the fear of dentists can develop against the background of childhood fears or panic, covering the subconscious in anticipation of severe pain.

Symptoms and signs of iatrophobia

Symptoms of iatrophobia manifest themselves with varying degrees of intensity depending on the age of the person. In children, this condition causes an attack of crying, hysteria and capriciousness.

In adults, physiological signs join emotional experiences. Severe iatrophobia may be accompanied by loss of consciousness and a panic attack. The person loses control over their emotions, behavior and body.

The following can accompany iatrophobia: symptoms:

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How to deal with fear of hospitals?

There are two ways to treat iatrophobia − psychotherapeutic procedures and drug therapy. Experts recommend trying to cope with fears on your own, and if there is no effect, seek help from psychologists and psychotherapists.

Good results in the elimination of obsessive states have methods of auto-training and self-hypnosis.

If psychotherapy cannot cope with the task of eliminating the phobia, then it becomes necessary to correct the patient's condition with potent drugs.

Psychotherapeutic impact

Includes:

Pharmacological therapy

The main method for eliminating iatrophobia is qualified psychological and psychiatric help.

Medical therapy can be used as a symptomatic treatment or when persistent psychiatric disorders occur.

For example, during a panic attack, a person may injure himself (anti-inflammatory drugs and antiseptics are needed) or experience severe emotional shock ( sedatives drugs and barbiturates).

The following can be used to eliminate iatrophobia: drugs:

Jatrophobia should not be confused with elementary anxiety before visiting a medical facility.

In the first case, the condition is a phobia, accompanied by characteristic symptoms and endangering a person, in the second case, fear causes discomfort, but it is much easier to deal with it than with a mental disorder.

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I am very afraid to treat my teeth: what to do?

Overcoming fear of the dentist office is one of the the most difficult tasks. Phobias associated with representatives of this profession cause serious psycho-emotional deviations.

The situation is aggravated by unbearable pain, which in most cases accompanies dental diseases. Emotional experiences are accompanied by physical suffering.

To cope with the fear of treating or removing teeth, the following will help recommendations:

Iatrophobia is dangerous phobic condition. Fear of doctors can cause not only the lack of timely medical care, but also the development of neurological and mental disorders.

panic attack in this case, not only the procedure, but also the appearance of the doctor can provoke. Excessive emotional experiences will lead to persistent mental disorders, which will be almost impossible to get rid of.

How to get rid of the fear of going to dentist? Psychologist's advice:

The statistics of sociological surveys conducted in our country show that many people experience stress before going to the dentist. If someone's fear of the dentist is episodic and makes them a little nervous, then some individuals experience a truly panicky fear. In the course of numerous psychological studies, it has been revealed that more than 30% of the population of our planet suffer from dental phobia (or the so-called stomatophobia), which means that almost one third of all mankind!

Elderly people are most susceptible to fear of dental treatment. And the reason is quite understandable: they still found those times when most of the procedures associated with dental treatment were carried out without anesthesia. That is, at one time they experienced from their own experience severe pain and a whole range of unpleasant sensations during drilling, filling or extraction of teeth. It is the fear of pain in some patients that acquires the character of a panic disorder. Associative thinking links to this fear both the image of the dentist himself and the type of dental instruments.

If the patient has experienced pain in the dentist's chair several times, a persistent panic fear is fixed in his subconscious, which, under adverse conditions, transforms into an anxiety-phobic disorder.

Signs of dental phobia: how does it manifest itself?

Many people are afraid of dentists to one degree or another. Such fear can be called dentophobia if it is panicky, inexplicable from the point of view of logic, uncontrollable in nature, and grows even with thoughts of an upcoming unpleasant procedure. An ordinary person, even if he shows fear at the sight of dental instruments, calms down quite quickly after talking with the doctor and administering anesthesia. After all, he sees the situation objectively, and is able to understand that there is no real danger.

The situation is quite different with dentophobes. Once in the dentist's office, on the contrary, he panics even more. The doctor's beliefs in the safety and painlessness of manipulations have no effect. The reaction of the patient even to the harmless and painless actions of the doctor manifests itself very violently both on the physical and emotional levels. There are frequent cases of panic attacks and loss of consciousness.

The behavioral reaction of a dentophobe may be inadequate: he begins to show aggression verbally, physically pushes the doctor away with his feet and hands, and tries to "flight". All this happens because a person subject to a phobic disorder is not able to control his fear, to control himself during a panic attack.

Complete refusal to visit the dentist does not solve the problem of dental phobia. The lack of timely dental treatment leads to serious consequences: neglected caries, periodontitis and other diseases lead to the destruction of the bone and nerve tissue of the tooth, and decay may begin. Sooner or later, the patient will still have to seek dental care already out of urgent need. After all, decaying dental tissue can lead to such severe pathologies as inflammation of the oral cavity and nasopharynx, asthma, arthritis, and cardiovascular diseases.

In such situations, an emergency removal of dead tooth tissues is necessary, and you still have to contact the dentist. At the same time, if the patient has not been involved in the treatment of dental phobia, she will again let you know about herself at the very first trip to the dentist.

The situation described above shows how important it is to deal with dental phobia. Treatment of dental phobia on its own is ineffective: the help of a qualified psychotherapist is needed. At the same time, a lot depends on the motivation of the dentophobe himself, his desire to overcome fears and work on himself.

With the right approach to the treatment of dental phobia, it is possible to successfully get rid of it.

Causes of Dentophobia

Psychologists and psychiatrists disagree about the causes of dental phobia. However, science has revealed a chain of processes occurring in the work of the central nervous system during the development of a phobic disorder. Its functioning is subject to change and differs from the work of the central nervous system of an ordinary person. This is due to the redistribution of the production of serotonin and norepinephrine.

So, let's consider the regularity of the processes occurring in the nervous system of a person suffering from a phobic disorder. In the human brain, the thalamus is responsible for the perception of sound images: it analyzes their intensity, timbre, volume, loudness, and the nature of the sound. This information is transmitted to the cerebral cortex. The cortex perceives these analyzed images and transmits them to the brain as a whole object. At the same time, the cortex performs a protective function, and, if necessary, turns off the threat signal if the objectively perceived object does not pose a danger.

The amygdala of the brain (or Amyglada) is the emotional center of the human brain and is responsible for the emotional coloring of perceived images and for responding to stimuli. So, for example, the intensity of response to a threat depends on the work of the amygdala. The core of the terminal band is responsible for reinforcing the response to a threatening image. With an anxiety disorder in the core, there is a clear fixation precisely on certain stimuli, and it cannot be objectively corrected with the help of consciousness. The "blue spot" of the human brain, perceiving impulses from the amygdala, forms a physical, protective reaction of the body to fear or anxiety. Thanks to him, in a stressful situation, blood pressure rises, sweating increases, pupils dilate. In the hippocampus, the final stage of the formation of a phobia occurs: it is responsible for remembering reactions to stimuli formed by the amygdala.

A person can notice the primary signs of a phobia after traumatic psyche, difficult events in life: a sharp change in activity or lifestyle, the death of loved ones, a long, serious illness, severe emotional and physical overload.

Another prerequisite for the development of dental phobia may be heredity. Science has proven that parental phobic disorders are highly likely to develop in children. As a result of a study conducted at the American University of Wisconsin-Madison, it turned out that the anxiety experienced by a mother during pregnancy is transmitted to her child and can manifest itself between the ages of 7 and 14 years. The predominant number of children who inherited maternal phobias turned out to be girls. Male children inherit anxiety disorders to a much lesser degree.

Dentophobia in children most often develops due to the negative experience of visiting the dentist. If in childhood a child experiences unpleasant and painful sensations in the dental chair, then in adolescence such experiences easily develop into an anxiety-phobic disorder.

The fear of the individual to show the dentist an unaesthetic appearance of the teeth, their neglect, as he is afraid of the negative emotional reaction of the doctor, can also become a prerequisite for dentophobia. As a rule, these are people who have ever encountered a specialist who does not comply with medical ethics: he scolded them for poor dental health, criticized their lifestyle and oral care. An impressionable person could perceive such a reaction quite painfully, on the basis of which the fear of dentists was formed.

In addition to the above prerequisites for the development of a phobic disorder, I can contribute to:

• Other psychological illnesses.
• Pain intolerance.
• Acute and severe toothache, fear that the doctor will make it even more painful.
• Media-covered cases of treatment at the dentist with negative consequences.
• Projection of personal negative experience of treatment by doctors of other areas on dentists.
• Fear of being helpless, defenseless, completely dependent, being in the dental chair: fixed open mouth, being at the complete disposal of the doctor.
• Inability to see and control what is happening.

Identification of the prerequisites and causes that formed dental phobia is the first step towards the treatment of the disorder.

How to get rid of dental phobia?

It should be noted that many dentifobes, not wanting to go to a qualified dentist, try to drown out a toothache by using strong painkillers, sedatives and sedatives, and take alcohol. These measures are self-destructive: not only oral diseases become neglected, but physical health in general suffers. A persistent addiction to drugs and alcoholism develops. Such self-medication can lead to a critical situation requiring emergency medical attention.

If, coupled with dental phobia, the patient has acquired alcohol and drug addiction, the treatment will take much longer, more difficult and much more costly financially.

Dentophobia treatment

Many of those who have coped with dental phobia note that the main thing is to contact a psychotherapist in a timely manner, not to rely entirely on one's own strength. The sooner measures are taken to correct and treat the disorder, the faster the disease will be cured. You should immediately be patient: the process will take some time, it can be quite lengthy. The duration of therapy depends on the general condition of the patient, the degree of neglect of the disease.

The doctor approaches the treatment of dental phobia in a complex way, with the help of medication and psychotherapeutic methods.

Treatment of dental phobia with medication

Antidepressants are the mainstay of medical treatment for this anxiety disorder. This is confirmed by studies that were conducted in a number of well-known psychiatric universities in Russia: it was proved that serotonin-selective antidepressants are the most effective in the treatment of phobias. In the case of dental phobia, doctors prefer cipramil.

Serotonin-selective drugs maintain the presence of the hormone serotonin in the human brain at the required level, increase its production. In addition, they have a minimum number of side effects, there is good tolerance by patients. Such antidepressants have a cumulative effect: the result of their exposure becomes noticeable from the third week of use. The duration of the course of treatment is determined individually and is at least three months.

Psychotherapeutic and supportive therapies

Psychotherapeutic work in the treatment of dental phobia is based on explaining to the patient the essence of the problem, identifying its causes and working through fears.

Below are some examples of such explanatory psychotherapy. They will help dentophobes look at their fears from an objective point of view.

1. Alternative way of dental care and I.

Patients with dental phobia may be offered dental treatment using local anesthesia and sedatives. They introduce the patient into a relaxed, half-asleep state, completely reassuring him. Reaction to irritants, emotional anxiety under such drugs is turned off. Upon completion of medical manipulations, the patient realizes that he did not experience negative, painful sensations. Several procedures of such alternative treatment help him understand that the dentist's office does not pose a threat to his life and health, there will be no pain. Gradually, his phobia is leveled, and he begins to relate to visiting the dentist without fear.

1. Interviews with other patients.

It will be very useful for dentophobes to think about the fact that everyone encounters dental treatment one way or another in their lives, and nothing bad happens to these people. You should talk with relatives and friends who have experience of treatment at the dentist, ask them in more detail about their feelings. If nothing bad happened to them, it won't happen to you!

1. Learn about the latest in the world of dentistry.

It also does not hurt to read scientific articles about new developments in dentistry. It is likely that a repeat of the unfortunate incident that happened to you in the dental office many years ago is impossible today. After all, science is moving forward, radically new, modern technologies are being introduced in the dental industry.

1. Use the protective properties of the nervous system.

Emphasize that our brain completely erases the memory of pain sensations of any strength after only three hours after they stop. You can remember your emotions and the environment in which you experienced pain, but you cannot remember the pain itself. The same thing will happen in the dental office: tune in to the fact that the discomfort will last only a few minutes, and then you just forget about them.

1. Support of loved ones.

The presence of a loved one during dental procedures helps a lot in the independent fight against dental phobia. This should be someone you trust, who is able to support and reassure you.

1. anchor method.

Before going to the doctor, try to focus your attention on an event from the past in which you showed yourself to be persistent, strong, which you courageously endured to the end. Create a psychological “anchor” for yourself by marking it in a certain way or even with a gesture. Fixate on this "anchor" during a visit to the dentist.

Conclusion

Whatever your phobia is, you should never be ashamed of it or blame yourself for it. After all, everyone has fears. Someone is afraid of blood, someone is afraid of closed spaces or darkness. Well, you are faced with a fear of treatment at the dentist.

If you recognize your problem and treat it comprehensively, both with the help of a doctor and on your own, then success is guaranteed!

In this article, we have tried to collect as much information as possible about dental phobia and give useful recommendations and instructions so that our readers can learn more about the disease and start fighting it. Our goal is to help as many people as possible cope with their fears. Therefore, we will be glad to your reposts of this post, as well as comments and reviews!

What is Dentophobia

No one will argue with the fact that toothache is a very unpleasant and painful thing. But despite this, many people are afraid of visiting the dentist much more than the pain itself, and visiting the dental clinic is postponed until the pain becomes unbearable. And such a fear of the dentist, dental phobia, can greatly harm health, because in any case a person will need to visit dentistry to treat and remove teeth, and then do open sinus lifting.

Fear of visiting a dentist is a fairly common thing, statistics say that 22% of patients experience anxiety before visiting a dentistry clinic and admit to themselves that they are “afraid to remove a tooth”. Many are restless and nervous, some go to the doctor only with an extremely advanced form of the disease, but there are those who are so afraid of treating their teeth that they fall into a terrible panic at the mere thought of a dentist. This is what a phobia is, it is a panic fear, and not just "I'm afraid." This often happens in adults when it becomes necessary to remove a wisdom tooth, because nothing can be done on its own.

So it is worth distinguishing between the usual fear of pain and such a mental deviation as dental phobia. A phobia is a panicky, uncontrollable fear that seems impossible to overcome, in which treatment at the dentist is presented as hellish torture. After all, it is one thing to be anxious, and another to panic and tremble at just one mention of the dentist.

Causes of panic fear

As a rule, dental phobia begins in childhood, when parents scare their children with “terrible” dentists, who make it very painful to treat and remove teeth. The child does not want to brush his teeth or eats a lot of sweets, and now the parents are already telling them about the uncle in a white coat with terrifying tools in his hands, and as a result, a phobia arises, the child repeats “I'm afraid” a hundred times a day.

And the fear of the dentist that originated in childhood may well remain for life and develop into a phobia that will greatly interfere with a fulfilling life, since living with a toothache and being afraid to go to the doctor is completely abnormal. Phobia is very dangerous. So instilling in a naughty child the rules of oral hygiene can affect his subconscious, and in adulthood negatively manifest itself. So you can't do it.

Of course, the fear of dentists is also based on a person’s personal experience, when after visiting the dentist there are very negative memories of pain and discomfort, which eventually feed the fear and the thought “I’m afraid to treat my teeth” arises.

Almost everyone remembers the times when, in order to visit a local dentist, a large supply of physical and moral strength was needed - you need to get up very early, and then stand in a long line, while avoiding quarrels and abuse, listening to many terrible stories about inhuman suffering dental clients, horrifying stories of tooth extractions and very painful treatments. All this, of course, affects the human psyche, and his fear of the dental chair is growing rapidly. And in this case, the word "I'm afraid" becomes more and more fatal.

There is another reason for fear, and quite justified. Some people are afraid of the possibility of being infected during treatment, because despite disinfection and sterilization, there is a risk of falling victim to the dentist's economy in many clinics. But you can just be afraid, or you can fidget in a panic chair and get the doctor with questions in order to delay treatment and distract yourself from the need to remove a wisdom tooth.

You can also name another reason that can lead to a phobia. To many, it may seem a little strange, but if you think about it, it is quite understandable. This is a reluctance to show doctors the neglected state of their teeth and oral cavity, a sense of shame and embarrassment. After all, it often happens that when visiting a dentist, clients have to listen to criticism addressed to them, when doctors can scold their visitors as delinquent students, while describing in detail how his teeth differ from the ideal, although they could simply silently treat. The causes of tartar, caries and other dental problems can be completely different. It is not always a matter of improper or insufficient oral care.

A good doctor will never make a patient blush, he will rather suggest ways out of the current situation, advise the necessary care and treatment, than waste the time of the appointment not condemning and discussing the shortcomings. Often, this awkwardness is experienced by adults who come to the dental clinic to remove a wisdom tooth. Not only children can whine, they say, "I'm afraid to pull out a tooth." And by the way, it is much more difficult for adults to overcome the fear of the dentist, because they are less prone to reassurance and no longer believe when they are told that it all “does not hurt at all”.

In addition to all these reasons, there may be others, such as an unstable mental state, when a deviation in the psyche or side symptoms of mental illness becomes the cause of fear, or, for example, a low pain threshold, when even the slightest manipulation of a doctor seems painful to a person. Then the words "I'm afraid to treat my teeth" can be quite justified. The removal of a wisdom tooth has become a special halo of fear.

How does dental phobia manifest itself?

A phobia to treat teeth is not a viral and infectious disease, it does not come on suddenly, it originates in a person in childhood, and over time it becomes more and more serious. People are terribly afraid of outside interference in their mouths, as they cannot control this process. A phobia can be expressed in different ways, the main symptom is, of course, a panic fear before treating and removing teeth. That is, if a person says "I'm afraid of the dentist" - this is already an indicator.

Even if a person does not recognize his fear, a sign may be the maximum delay in going to the doctor, even when dental problems cause discomfort, but even this pain does not drive away fear.

Symptoms of dental phobia that accompany psychological discomfort:

• heartbeat quickens;
• excessive sweating;
• feeling of anxiety and concern;
• inability to communicate with the doctor and express himself clearly.
• loss of consciousness;
• trembling in the limbs;
• involuntary urination.

Ways to get rid of a phobia

If the pain that accompanies dental treatment seems unbearable and unbearable, you should definitely use painkillers. For example, it can be laughing gas - nitric oxide, which gives the patient a very slight feeling of intoxication, which drives away all fears. From such an anesthetic, a phobia will become only a ghost, it can be used for painful procedures, for example, if you need to treat a particularly neglected case or remove a wisdom tooth. Another, the most common type of anesthesia is sedation, in which the effect of the drug lasts about two hours, the patient hears and sees everything, but does not feel pain at all. Doing it has become a habit.

You should also ask the doctor to comment on everything that he will do, this will create the illusion that everything will be under control, and the fear will become less. Moral support is also very important, so you need to take a loved one to the dental clinic who can support and reassure, then the treatment will not seem so terrible.

The next, very important step, which, however, many people are too lazy to do. You should visit your dentist annually for prevention purposes. Firstly, this will prevent critical neglect of the state of the teeth, secondly, the treatment will be less painful, and thirdly, visiting a doctor will become a habit and will not cause panic fear.

It is also necessary not to pay attention to the terrible stories of acquaintances that provoke fear of the dental chair and the emergence of a panic "I'm afraid to treat my teeth." It is necessary to distract from negative thoughts and images, tune in to prudent treatment. This will greatly help you overcome your fear.

Sometimes special trainings are held for the treatment of dental phobia, for especially severe cases, psychotherapy is used, which completely drives away the fear of treating and removing teeth. The psychotherapist knows what to say to such patients, he draws from the visitors their dark memories and convinces them of the need for dental treatment.

But the most important thing is the desire of a person to get rid of a phobia before treatment, which prevents him from putting his teeth in order and living a full life, because, as already mentioned, dental phobia is very harmful to health. Adults often face a serious problem of removing a wisdom tooth. This is a particularly painful and unpleasant procedure, but if the wisdom tooth is not removed, it will cause much more inconvenience.

It should be noted that modern dentistry is very different from the one that was before. These are convenient and comfortable rooms, the newest equipment and techniques used for treatment, medications that are very effective. The complex of all these innovations makes it possible to treat and remove teeth painlessly, and the fear of the dentist becomes unjustified. You need to be patient and wise, and understand that dental treatment is a must for everyone, and you still have to make visits to the doctor.

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Fear of dentists, or dental phobia, is one of the most common types of phobic disorder. Many people choose not to visit dental clinics in order not to struggle with a phobia, as facing fear face to face is a serious test. At the same time, with the right approach, you can even cope with a phobia on your own, and with the help of a qualified psychotherapist, dental phobia disappears in just a few sessions.

All children are very afraid of dental treatment, and over the years this can develop into a serious mental problem.

Dentophobia is a common fear, despite the fact that dental clinics today do everything possible to make a visit to the doctor quick, smooth and painless. On the one hand, we can say that the roots of this phobia go back to those times when it was really very painful to treat your teeth. On the other hand, psychotherapists are sure that it is not even the pain syndrome that comes to the fore, but the general feeling of helplessness experienced by the patient in the dental chair.

Regardless of the reasons, the fear of dentists is potentially dangerous both for the patient's psyche and for the health of the oral cavity, because people with such fear ignore preventive visits to the dentist and often start dental diseases.

As a rule, fear is laid in early childhood, when the child first undergoes a preventive examination. The task of parents is to notice alarming symptoms in time and take appropriate measures, otherwise fear can remain in adulthood, significantly worsening a person’s life.

Signs of violation

It would seem that an adult should be able to control his emotions, including when visiting a doctor. Of course, there is little pleasant in a dental examination, but discomfort can be tolerated for the sake of strong teeth and a beautiful smile. This is how any adult thinks, however, with dental phobia, controlling one's own feelings and emotions at a dentist's appointment becomes an impossible task for a person.

The anxiety symptoms of a phobic disorder can manifest in three situations:

• directly during the inspection;
• during an appointment with a doctor;
• when thinking about seeing a dentist.

If fear arises only during the examination, when the patient has already sat down in a chair, this is the first stage of dental phobia, which is easier to deal with. If anxiety arises even at the thought of the need for an examination, it is time to sound the alarm and sign up for a consultation with a psychotherapist.

Dentophobia refers to object phobias, therefore it has quite standard manifestations. Object phobias are called phobias that occur upon contact with one object or object, in this case, with a dental chair or dentist.

A person experiences uncontrollable horror and may even lose consciousness

This phobia is manifested by mental and bodily symptoms. Psychiatric manifestations include:

• feeling of irrational uncontrollable fear;
• feeling of panic;
• desire to leave the doctor's office as soon as possible;
• uncontrolled actions and movements;
• aggression towards the doctor;
• feeling of helplessness;
• derealization.

The key symptom is uncontrollable fear. In other words, a person does not just feel anxiety, but experiences real horror, and one cannot hide or close oneself from these emotions.

People with this phobia experience an obsessive urge to run away from the doctor's office.

The bodily symptoms of a phobia are also varied. Typical manifestations:

• muscle hypertonicity;
• tremor of fingers;
• feeling short of breath (shortness of breath);
• feeling your own heartbeat;
• headache;
• dizziness and nausea;
• confusion.

These symptoms resemble a panic attack and are associated with increased stress hormones. In severe cases, patients describe their condition as pre-syncope, complain of crampy abdominal pain and blurred vision.

Causes of fear

Watching specific movies as a child may trigger the development of a phobia

The causes of dental phobia, however, like any other pathological fear, are very diverse. These include:

• childhood trauma;
• hereditary predisposition;
• features of education;
• painful manipulations in hospitals;
• excessive impressionability;
• neurosis.

Childhood psychological trauma is the most common reason for the development of a fear of dentists. For example, in some countries children believe in the Tooth Fairy. When a milk tooth falls out, the kids put it under the pillow, waiting for a reward from the fairy. Lack of reward, ridicule from parents or older brothers or sisters - all this can cause the development of fears of any manipulation of the teeth. As a result, in adulthood, childhood resentment transforms into a real phobia.

Another reason may be the peculiarities of upbringing. Some adults scare children about doctors, such as when they refuse to brush their teeth. If a child is often told “if you don’t brush your teeth, the doctor will pull them out”, a phobia begins to form from childhood, which becomes a real problem in adulthood.

In the issue of the occurrence of phobias, heredity plays an important role. So, if one of the parents is afraid to go to the dentist, the child adopts this fear and eventually develops a phobia. This is due, first of all, to copying the behavior of adults by children.

In some cases, the fear of the dentist or dentist is part of the phobia of any doctors. This occurs if a person has undergone some unpleasant manipulations in the clinic. As a result, he is wary of all people in white coats, and over time, dental phobia may also occur.

In addition, the fear of dental treatment may be associated with severe stress or neurosis. In this case, a person has signs of pathological fear due to an increase in stress hormones.

In adulthood, dental phobia can be part of a chain of complexes. For example, a person has not visited a dentist for a long time due to lack of funds for treatment. If he is not initially confident in himself, he will experience fear of the doctor, associated with the reaction of the dentist to the neglected condition of the teeth. This translates into a fear of being ridiculed for the fact that the patient did not have the financial opportunity to go to a dental clinic earlier.

Types of phobia

Before you figure out how to get rid of dental phobia, you should know what types of this disorder are.

Psychotherapists divide this pathological fear into imagined and acquired. Imaginary dental phobia is something that happens in children. A person has no real reason to be afraid of dentists, since he has never been to them, and the fear is rather abstract, since an examination by a doctor is perceived as something potentially dangerous and unpleasant. Quite often, imaginary phobias apply to all medical professionals - a person will be just as afraid of an x-ray, an examination by a therapist, or a routine blood test.

The acquired phobia of dentists is always the result of a bad experience in the past. This happens if a person previously came across an unscrupulous doctor who ridiculed the condition of his teeth, caused pain or did not delicately approach the issue of examining the patient.

Be sure to notify the dentist in advance that you are a dentophobic

Diagnosing a phobia is usually not a problem. Even a dentist can make such a diagnosis. As a rule, patients do not hesitate to tell the doctor about their fear.

An important nuance: the fear of a dental examination should not interfere with dental treatment. If a person is afraid of dentists, he should directly warn the dentist about his fear. The specialist will select the right approach to the patient so as to minimize the manifestations of the phobia and still solve the dental problem and cure the teeth.

A few tips to make your visit to the dental clinic easier:

• you should choose only qualified doctors, giving preference to large clinics;
• you should warn the doctor about your fear in advance;
• you can wear sunglasses so as not to irritate your eyes with the bright light of the lamps in the doctor's office;
• it is recommended to carry out treatment only under anesthesia.

If the individual approach did not work, and the patient is ready to faint from horror while in the dental chair, there is only one way out - to seek help from a psychotherapist.

Treatment Methods

Treatment of dental phobia is a long and difficult process. As in the case of any other phobias, there is no universal treatment regimen, therefore, in matters of therapy, you will have to trust the psychotherapist.

The doctor will talk with the patient, try to identify the causes of fear, and then determine how to deal with dental phobia in each case. Sometimes only a few psychotherapy sessions are enough for a person to overcome his fear, but in severe cases, an integrated approach is needed, including drug treatment and psychocorrection.

Medical treatment

Drug therapy is aimed at eliminating the symptoms of an exacerbation of a phobia. For this purpose, apply:

• tranquilizers to relieve anxiety and symptoms of a panic attack;
• sedatives to strengthen the nervous system;
• vitamins to normalize the functioning of the nervous system;
• metabolic drugs to improve brain function.

Drug therapy is especially effective in cases where the phobia appears against the background of severe stress or neurosis. At the same time, medications strengthen the nervous system and accelerate its recovery, making a person more resistant to various stress factors and psychotraumatic situations.

In other cases, drugs are used to reduce overall tension, as a preparation for psychotherapy.

Psychotherapy and hypnosis

Hypnosis sessions must be carried out very carefully.

Many are lost, not knowing what to do if they are afraid of dentists. In fact, the main thing is not to “postpone” the problem, but to seek help from a psychologist or psychotherapist in a timely manner. Here it is important to find out the cause of fear, work it out and learn how to manage your own emotions.

The best way to overcome the fear of dentists is cognitive-behavioral therapy. This method is aimed at changing the patient's perception of the object of fear. As a result of such treatment, patients learn to independently manage their emotions that arise at the time of a collision with an object of fear.

Hypnotherapy is practiced quite often. This method has proven itself in the fight against object phobias, but with the conditions of working with a competent specialist. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find a qualified psychotherapist-hypnologist, so this method requires caution.

You can try to overcome the phobia on your own. This brings results with moderately pronounced fear. A few valuable tips from an experienced psychologist will help in the fight.

1. Despite the fear, it should be remembered that there is no escape from dental treatment. It is better to contact the clinic as soon as possible, otherwise the condition of the teeth will only worsen, which means that over time, a longer manipulation will be needed, or even more than one visit to the dentist.
2. During the examination, it is recommended to close your eyes and abstract from everything that is happening, focusing on a pleasant memory. When fear intensifies, you can repeat a rhyme or some kind of poem in your mind.
3. Often, defeating fear once and for all is obtained by sedation. You should consult a dentist about this possibility in advance, since the method involves inhaling special relaxing drugs and immersing the patient in a superficial sleep.
4. To feel more confident at the doctor's appointment, you can enlist the support of a loved one. It will be much easier for the patient to endure dental procedures if there is a well-known person in the office.

If nothing can force you to voluntarily go to the dentist, you need to deal with the treatment of the phobia in earnest. As practice shows, 5-10 sessions of psychotherapy help to overcome dental phobia. In especially neglected cases, when long-term treatment by a psychotherapist gives only a temporary effect, the specialist may offer to accompany the patient to the dentist.

Dentophobia in children

From an early age, you need to explain to kids that there is no need to be afraid of dentists.

Having figured out what the fear of dentists is called, you need to try to prevent its development, since this fear is usually laid down in childhood. The task of parents is to correctly explain to the child the need for oral care and make it clear that treating teeth does not hurt at all. It is better if parents show this by their own experience, taking their child with them to the dentist, and then showing him a snow-white smile.

Myths about dental phobia

Dentophobia is a fairly ancient disease, because implants were placed back in the days of Ancient Egypt, and then medicine left much to be desired.

In its modern form, the disease appeared in the middle of the 20th century, because, due to the imperfection of dental equipment and limitations in the use of anesthesia, 30 years ago, every visit to the dentist was accompanied by pain and discomfort. At the same time, a myth arose that dental implants should not be placed, otherwise a person will constantly think about a foreign object in the mouth, which will cause severe neurosis. In fact, dentophobes have no restrictions on dental treatment methods. The main thing is to overcome the fear of dentists, and what to do with implants and how to treat teeth - this will be told by the doctor at the appointment.

A visit to the dentist is not an ordinary, ordinary act. It is necessary for a long time to collect all your will into a fist, to persuade yourself, giving arguments, in general, to tune in psychologically. It is not simple. A rare person can boast of the habit of solving dental problems, by the way, in the flow of current affairs. The whole reason is dental phobia, or the fear of treating teeth.

In the concept of stress as such, such fears are a manifestation of a deeper fear for one's life and a desire to avoid any shocks, suffering and trouble. As long as a person is aware of this fear, he has a chance to cope with it, overpower himself and force him to look for solutions.

Reasons for fear of visiting the dentist

It is possible to establish the causes of such fear only with the help of a thorough diagnosis. Dentophobia is a complex mental state of tension caused by an upcoming visit to the dentist. A visit to the dentist is always a mild stress, but for some people it develops into a phobia that haunts them all his life. Ultimately, such a phobia leads to loss of health and must be dealt with.

Specialists divide dental phobia into congenital, which happens extremely rarely, and acquired. Congenital is characteristic of people who generally panic before any medical procedures. But the acquired is due to reasons from the outside, under the impression of previously seen or experienced.

1. A firm belief that dental treatment hurts. A similar fear appears after a negative experience. For older people who have experience in dental treatment without anesthesia, such fears are most typical, because until the 80s of the XX century, dentistry did not have the wide arsenal of treatment methods that is presented today.
2. A sense of shame, characteristic of perfectionist people who want to make only a good, pleasant impression on others. As a rule, this category of patients believes that the dentist will think badly of them, somehow condemn them, even mentally. And in vain. An experienced doctor has seen enough of more terrible things in his practice, do not flatter yourself that you will surprise him with your unique, rotten roots or.
3. Fear of the prospect of removing most of the teeth.
4. Confidence in the high cost and inaccessibility of good treatment. And this is not without reason, because the more the situation with the oral cavity is running, the more difficult it is to restore health, since a wide range of rather expensive manipulations will be required. So, if you do not go to the doctor today, tomorrow, indeed, the elimination of defects will become more expensive.

Dentophobia in children

Pediatric patients are a special group of visitors to clinics around the world, and they receive more attention from dentists. Toddlers show their fear of the dental chair a little differently from adults. Causes of children's dental phobia are:

1. Fear of the unknown. The child does not have information about the process. Exhortations from adults such as “it doesn’t hurt at all, it’s not scary” often have the opposite effect, causing suspicion and distrust in the baby.
2. Fear of being deceived. Incorrect treatment and mistakes of one doctor can lead to further distrust of the child in all dentistry as a whole.
3. Fear of invasion of your personal space and loss of control. The doctor's manipulations, the need to sit with an open mouth, shackle the immediate children, causing a feeling of helplessness.
4. Fear of pain. Unfortunately, pain during dental treatment is a very real component. Such an experience can quite rightly forever discourage the desire of a small patient to treat teeth.

How to help a child in the treatment of dental phobia and overcoming fear

• do not deceive, try to negotiate, and the doctor - to convince the baby that at the first moment of discomfort, he will interrupt the treatment, choose the most painless option;
• try to find the right, pleasant words for the child. Avoid the words “injection”, “tooth extraction”, replacing them with some milder variations such as “soothing drops for the tooth”, “let's try to slowly loosen the tooth” and the like;
• competently dedicate the child to the details of treatment, using terms such as "spaceship", "astronaut's chair", "saliva vacuum cleaner", "magic mirror", "good buzzer-healer" and so on, which is enough for parental imagination, and participating in the treatment process, children are distracted by the choice of the color of the filling or the desired interesting tool;
• praise the child continuously, what a hero and clever he is, establish trusting contact with him, and after treatment, switch the baby's attention to some event that is pleasant for him;
• in no case be angry with the child, he has already endured a difficult emotional burden, and the feeling of guilt for some moments of impatience can overload the child's psyche;
• do not compare your child with other "hero" children, be afraid of pain - this is normal, focus on the positive aspects.

Fear of dental treatment in adults: methods of overcoming

In fact, dental phobia is treatable, it is important to find the right solution to this problem. Experienced and talented dentists always know how to find the right approach to difficult patients. For their part, people suffering from such fears should also look for ways to avoid them.

What to do if dental phobia has firmly entered a person’s life and does not allow to put the oral cavity in order. First of all, it is important to convince yourself that it is necessary to treat your teeth, a long delay will only exacerbate the problem. Tellingly, it is regular visits to the dentist that most of all contribute to getting rid of age-old fear. There are several proven tips for experienced dodgers:

• To study all known methods of pain relief, science does not stand still, now, if desired, even the injection site in the gum can be anesthetized, and the patient can be offered a sedative. Long gone are the days when ineffective novocaine was used, the range of modern means of reliable anesthesia is extensive. Not a single good dentist (and bad ones do not stay in reputable clinics) wants to cause pain, on the contrary, he himself will be interested in pain relief. After all, the absence of pain will facilitate the work of the doctor, which means it will positively affect the result.
• Responsibly approach the choice of the clinic and the attending physician. The pleasant atmosphere of the medical institution is important! It is quite realistic to choose a clinic with a beautiful environment without a sharp medicinal smell, queues and children's crying. You can agree in advance on a preliminary consultation before treatment, at which you are not at all ashamed to admit your dental phobia. Finding a friendly and professional doctor, establishing trusting contact with him is half the solution to all problems.
• Discuss immediately the cost of treatment, find out all the prices and exclude fears for this reason. It is unlikely that it will be possible to indicate the exact cost in advance, but at least determine the price range. For people whose fears depend on the financial component of the process, this will help remove unreasonable fear in advance.
• Rely on the recommendations of your friends when choosing your doctor. Good competition in this sector motivates dentists to improve their knowledge of psychology and find competent approaches to patients. By accommodating a person, the dentist facilitates the process of treatment itself and attracts grateful clients. A visit to such a doctor will save you from many negative moments.
• Establish contact with the attending physician during the period of therapy, stipulate some conventional signs in order to express your reaction. We should not forget that dentists face such fears all the time, for them this is not new. Only 20% of patients go to the dental office calmly, without fear.

The fear of visiting the dentist should be dealt with in all ways, they are most reminiscent of children's unreasonable panic and only bring discomfort into our lives. We must try to overcome them, remembering that real doctors wish their patients well.