subject: What Is Dental Phobia? Are You Suffering From The Same? [print this page] Phobia can be loosely stated as the fear of "something". It can range from cars, trucks, airplanes, heights or even the dentist. Yes, I am not trying to kid you - dental phobia exists in many forms among a large share of the present generation. Allow me to explain certain aspects of this weird medical ailment. Dental phobia can even lead to the death of the patient. Once the threshold of fear is breached, the patient will start experiencing racy heartbeats. In the majority of the cases, the patients suffer from cardiac arrest.
In fact, the reader will be surprised to hear that there are three types of spinoffs for dental phobia. They happen to be the dental anxiety, dental fear and ultimately dental phobia. All of us experience the anxiety part - the same feeling that creeps slowly into your mind, when you realize that you will be taken to the dentist later that evening. Dental anxieties might persist for a few sessions and normally the patient will overcome the situation - with the aid of professional help or single handedly. In other terms, dental anxiety can be treated.
The next stage is the dental fear - this is dental anxiety at an advanced stage. Even though the patient realizes that there are no inherent dangers by visiting a dentist, he or she will start fearing the dentist. It is tough to overcome this fear - the cause of dental fear is strangely unknown even to reputed dentists. According to some of them, the fear might crop up because of the sensation of helplessness that creeps in when a dentist is operating in the mouth. For major procedures, dentists are noted to employ local anesthesia - this will restrict the movement of the jaws and the tongue!
If you fear that you are experiencing any of the above mentioned conditions, it is better to contact a dentist at the earliest. Acknowledged authorities will conduct certain tests and these tests will determine the "level of the fear" present in your mind. The commonly employed tests are Dental Anxiety Scale or Modified Dental Anxiety Scale. The queries posted by the dentist are straight forward and according to the test results, you will be diagnosed with the dental fear or dental anxiety or even dental phobias. The condition is highly detrimental to the patient.
He or she will start thinking in an adverse manner - they fully realize that they are unnecessarily "making a fuss of the issue", yet somehow they are not able to control the inherent fear. With the aid of appropriate psychiatric treatment, psychiatrists have achieved success in eliminating the phobia from the minds of many. If your child is displaying the same tendencies as illustrated in the article, it is better to confirm the condition with the DAS and MDAS tests! If possible, it is better not to mention about dentists and dental procedures in the presence of people suffering from dental phobia. Do you know someone who fits this description? If so, please do not let the time while away!
