Psychotherapy
Psycotherapy has been used for many years for the treatment
of a whole host of phobias and other anxiety related disorders.
How is it done?
The methods used to treat the dental phobia are many
and varied. Psycotherapy may even be used in conjunction with
hypnosis. Your psycotherapist will often initially try to locate
the origin of your fear, ie a bad childhood experience.
The psycologist may then try to de-sensitise you by
slowly exposing you to your fear. For instance with the assistance
of the psycologist at the chairside simple dental treatment, such
as a scale and polish, may be attempted initially, slowly building
up to the more advanced work.
Some psycologists may suggest that you sit in whilst
the dentist treats other patients so that you could get accustomed
to the environment. This however may only be possible if you know
a friend who would let you do this as the confidentiality laws
in the UK are such that dentists would usually be unhappy to allow
this to take place with their other patients.Due to the extra
time that is usually necessary in the dental chair this type of
treatment may not be available on the NHS at your own dentist
and you could be required to pay privately.
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