Odontophobia fear of going to the dentist

The odontophobia it is the irrational and persistent fear of going to the dentist. There are people who are aware of the problems that begin to appear in their mouth, from bleeding gums and cavities to the accumulation of tartar. However, if these problems are not enough for the person to end up giving way to go to the dentist, that is when we talk about a phobia.

Behind this phobia hides the feared object that is none other than the fear of experiencing pain. For this reason, more and more techniques and procedures are concerned that the patient is the most relaxed possible and the pain is barely noticeable. In this sense, dental implants without surgery are a great advance that does not require an incision. All this translates into greater patient comfort together with a postoperative period without pain or discomfort. In addition, the intervention is faster and easier than in traditional interventions.

Another procedure that relieves the patient's pain is the application of digital anesthesia by computer. This dental clinic in Móstoles states that one of the main fears of patients is pain as a result of the anesthesia puncture.

To avoid this problem, the computer digital anesthesia administers anesthesia in a controlled manner in the mouth using a digital pump controlled by a computer. Thanks to this, the liquid infiltrates gradually and always below the patient's pain threshold. This process takes several minutes, compared to the few seconds that traditional injection anesthesia infiltration takes.

Despite all these advances and efforts with the aim that the patient suffers as little as possible, when we talk about a phobia such as odontophobia in this case, the psychological component it is going to have considerable weight. For these more extreme cases, there are also solutions available to alleviate the suffering of the patient. We speak for example of the conscious sedation when fear and phobia is not manageable or when it is necessary to perform more than four implants per intervention.

How do we distinguish phobia from anxiety?

In general, the appointment with the dentist is not something appetizing a priori, that falls within the normality. However on some occasions this fear or anxiety it becomes pathological and that's when we talk about a phobia.

The main difference between phobia and anxiety consists in the degree of avoidance what the person does. A person may have a high degree of anxiety about going to the dentist and they will still make an effort and end up going to their appointment. However, a person with a phobia of the dentist will do everything possible to avoid the appointment, even if his health is compromised..

In the case of odontophobia, stimuli that the person fears are limited to the entire context of the dentist, from the smells of different drugs, the visualization of the tools or the sounds that the utensils emit. As we have commented previously, behind all this hides the fear of pain.

The problem is that a vicious cycle can be created since the anxiety that these patients manifest translates into hypervigilance towards all these stimuli and hypersensitivity to pain. That is, the greater the anxiety, the greater the muscular tension and therefore the greater the experience of pain. In the most extreme cases, the fear of having a panic attack during the intervention can occur, this is what is known as "fear of fear".

Odontophobia is closely related to a type of phobia called "phobia of SID" (blood-injections-damage). It is very common for a person who has a phobia of the dentist to also experience a high degree of anxiety about visits to hospitals in general, the visualization of blood or the possibility of suffering damage.

Treatment for odontophobia

As with most phobias, gradual live exposure provides the best results to overcome this problem. The process consists of taking a series of staggered steps so that the fear gradually disappears..

In this sense, one could start with very non-threatening situations such as simply accompanying someone to the dentist, and then go up the level through an oral examination to hygiene and finally an intervention.

To manage the exposure, different relaxation and breathing techniques are also very useful, which will facilitate the exposure of the patient to all the feared stimuli..