Causes of dentophobia

Dentophobia is the fear of visiting a dentist or in simple terms, anxiety caused by dental work. While this phobia is common in kids, some adults demonstrate it. Therefore, it has no age or gender and anybody can have it. According to some statistics, about 3/4 of the adults population fear dentists. There shouldn’t be any case of dentophobia if dental procedures are painless. And, speaking of painless, most of the procedure is painfree at DDII Gosford so there can be no room for dentophobia under their expert dental care. In the meantime, here are further explanations regarding dentophobia.

Dentophobia is connected to other phobias like:
• Latrophobia(fear of physicians)
• trypanophobia(fear of injections)
• Fear of pain
• Fear of hospitals
• Fear of being diagnosed with other dire maladies

In some incidents, this phobia may be so dire that it may lead to serious consequences.

What are its causes?

Direct or indirect experiences with a dental practitioner are the leading causes of the phobia. This is because it combines worrying processes like tooth extraction, cavity fillings, root canal treatments and many others. Also before such processes are started, a patient is required to be injected with local anaesthesia. For a patient who fears injection, he/she may choose not to visit a dentist.

• For kids, the anxiety may be caused by watching or listening to some adults who fear dental work. Hence, any time a kid sees a dentist, he/she will relate him/her with pain. How adults say and act in the presence of minors matters a lot.

• Additionally, a manner in which a dentist handles a patient contributes to this phobia. A dentist maybe rough, uncaring, abusive or even careless that can lead to this fear. Having a bad experience with one dentist may make a patient generalize that all dentists are the same.

• Watching TV shows, cartoons or reading books and articles that portray dental work in a bad light may be a contributor too.

• Also, the general outlook of a dentist office shows a lot. It may have antiseptic odors, drilling sounds, white coats, and intense aloft lights that may reawaken a patient’s similar painful encounter.

• Lastly, mental, physical or sexual abuse may bring about the fear of anything that may look unpleasant.

In conclusion, the phobia of a dentist should be fought by all means because it may lead to patients failure to seek medical attention. Therefore, prevention is better than cure.