1. Sleep Dentistry fixing Dentophobia
Variously called dental phobia, odontophobia, dentophobia and dentist anxiety, the meaning is pretty
clear: people suffering from dentophobia have a fear of going to the dentist. Although there isn’t usually
a diagnosis for this phobia, those that have it, know they do.
They fear going to the dentist, it’s as simple as that. They associate a visit with pain and discomfort.
It can be learned by personal experience or outside influence. Visiting the dentist as a child can be
extremely painful, especially since children are especially conscious of things that make them feel
uncomfortable.
The Story Behind Dentophobia
Many of the dentophobes have had painful experiences in their youth, making them adverse to the
dentist. Now that they’re older, nothing’s changed except their ability to choose not to go.
Their teeth and gums suffer from that choice and they are eventually forced there because of a tooth
ache. Once there, they undergo an uncomfortable procedure to fix the tooth ache and their hate of the
dental office only increases.
They visit for toothaches. Those toothaches come from not taking care of their teeth.
These toothaches lead to painful procedures. These procedures could be avoided if they came in for a
cleaning regularly.
Since they don’t come in regularly, they have
to keep coming back for tooth aches. It’s a
vicious cycle.
The other way people can get it is through
external experiences. Men and women are
often very influenced by the opinions of
others, most especially when they consider
these others authorities on the subject.
A man is told by a very good friend that visits
to the dentist hurt and that they’re only a scam to get your money. Unless he has experience to counter
that idea, he is very likely to accept that idea as his own.
The influence could become so great that when asked why he hates dental visits, he couldn’t tell you
why, he’s just “always hated it.” The same applies for the influence of the media.
The media holds powerful sway over the opinions of the public. The public picks their favorite stations to
watch and opinions to follow and latches onto them.

2. A media program that portrays dentistry as particularly uncomfortable will be internalized. Dislike is
soon to follow and pretty soon the viewer has a bad opinion of the industry.
It’s not that they’ve had any particularly painful experiences, it’s just because the TV said so. Sometimes
it’s not even something someone’s said or done, some don’t like the dental office by association.
The Results
When someone has a bad experience with anyone in the medical community, a person can attribute
that experience across every kind of healthcare provider. They learn to hate everyone with no
exceptions.
They’ll avoid these places like the plague. A lot of people suffer from dentophobia to varying degrees.
The best way to treat it in most cases is to put yourself in a position to have good experiences. Come in
for a normal cleaning every 6 months.
The more often you do this, the fewer times you’ll have to come back in for a major procedure. A great
opportunity to have a good experience is to visit a local sleep dentist.
A sleep dentist will put you under for the duration of a procedure. You come out of it a bit groggy, but
overall happy that you didn’t have to be conscious for most of the work.
It’s like you were never even there, and yet your mouth is on its way to recovery. Craniofacial Pain
Associates is a team of sleep dentists in Oklahoma that can help fix your dentophobia.