Such behavior ultimately results in bad oral health, with more missing teeth, decayed teeth, and poor periodontal status. 9įearful and anxious individuals feel that something dreadful is going to happen during dental treatment, and hence do not visit the dentist. 7, 8 Eli suggested that a strained dentist–patient relationship dominated by severe anxiety resulted in misdiagnosis during vitality testing for endodontic therapy. 5, 6 Treating such anxious patients is stressful for the dentist, due to reduced cooperation, requiring more treatment time and resources, ultimately resulting in an unpleasant experience for both the patient and the dentist. Anxiety is often closely linked to painful stimulus and increased pain perception, and thus these patients experience more pain that lasts longer moreover, they also exaggerate their memory of pain. This is a frequently encountered problem in dental offices. 4īoth dental anxiety and fear evoke physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses in an individual.
Dentist fear game manual#
Overwhelming and irrational fear of dentistry associated with devastating feelings of hypertension, terror, trepidation, and unease is termed “odontophobia”, and has been diagnosed under specific phobias according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-IV and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD)-10. Phobia is persistent, unrealistic, and intense fear of a specific stimulus, leading to complete avoidance of the perceived danger. Dental fear is a reaction to threatening stimuli in dental situations. It is normally experienced in day-to-day life, such as during exams, while making crucial decisions, in the workplace, and in several other circumstances.įear is a reaction to a known or perceived threat or danger.
3 Anxiety is an emotional state that precedes the actual encounter with the threatening stimuli, which sometimes is not even identifiable. It has been cited as the fifth-most common cause of anxiety by Agras et al. 1, 2 Anxiety associated with the thought of visiting the dentist for preventive care and over dental procedures is referred to as dental anxiety. In certain situations, where the patient is not able to respond to and cooperate well with psychotherapeutic interventions, is not willing to undergo these types of treatment, or is considered dental-phobic, pharmacological therapies such as sedation or general anesthesia should be sought.įear and anxiety toward the dentist and dental treatment are both significant characteristics that contribute to avoidance of dental care. Cognitive behavior therapy is a combination of behavior therapy and cognitive therapy, and is currently the most accepted and successful psychological treatment for anxiety and phobia. Cognitive strategies aim to alter and restructure the content of negative cognitions and enhance control over the negative thoughts. Behavior-modification therapies aim to change unacceptable behaviors through learning, and involve muscle relaxation and relaxation breathing, along with guided imagery and physiological monitoring using biofeedback, hypnosis, acupuncture, distraction, positive reinforcement, stop-signaling, and exposure-based treatments, such as systematic desensitization, “tell-show-do”, and modeling. Pharmacologically, these patients can be managed using either sedation or general anesthesia. Psychotherapeutic interventions are either behaviorally or cognitively oriented. Broadly, dental anxiety can be managed by psychotherapeutic interventions, pharmacological interventions, or a combination of both, depending on the level of dental anxiety, patient characteristics, and clinical situations.
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In such situations, subjective evaluation by interviews and self-reporting on fear and anxiety scales and objective assessment of blood pressure, pulse rate, pulse oximetry, finger temperature, and galvanic skin response can greatly enhance the diagnosis and enable categorization of these individuals as mildly, moderately, or highly anxious or dental phobics. The initial interaction between the dentist and the patient can reveal the presence of anxiety, fear, and phobia. These patients need to be identified at the earliest opportunity and their concerns addressed. Formulating acceptable evidence-based therapies for such patients is essential, or else they can be a considerable source of stress for the dentist.
It is a frequently encountered problem in dental offices. Dental anxiety and phobia result in avoidance of dental care.