All About The Fear of Dentists At & How To Overcome it with CBT Therapy & Counselling in Wolverhampton & West Midlands

About The Fear of Dentists

The Fear of Dentists refers to the fear of dentistry and of receiving dental care as opposed to fear of dentists themselves.

Other names for this phobia include Dental Phobia, Dentophobia, Dentist Phobia or Dental Anxiety.

However, it has been suggested that the term “dental phobia” is inappropriate as many people with this condition do not feel their fears to be irrational or unreasonable and can relate directly to a previous painful experience.

As with any type of phobia, there are varying degrees of fear of dentists.

The most common, and least severe, is simply a worry of the unknown.

This may arise if you’ve heard “horror” stories from other people or you’re worried about what might happen.

Dental Fears

The next level of fear of dentists is “Dental Fear”, which is a reaction to a known danger.

For example, you may have had a tooth removed and experienced some pain.

As a result, you may stress about experiencing it again.

In these cases it may not seem at all like the fear you experience is “irrational” but, on the contrary, completely logical!

However, in general terms, Dentistry is so good these days that it is reasonable to expect a pain-free experience.

Fear of Dentists Symptoms

The symptoms associated with the fear of Dentists have much in common with other fears and phobias and may include:

• Generalised Anxiety
• Social anxiety
• Control issues
• Insomnia & sleeping problems
• Panic attacks
• Overthinking things
• Stress

Often the symptoms of Dentophobia can seem to occur without the object of fear even being present indicating that the fear of Dentists has become normalised into everyday life.

This normalisation process often results in the development and use of safety behaviours in an attempt to prevent exposure to triggering events which, paradoxically, may cause the problem to get worse.

In other words, safety behaviours tend to reinforce the fear of Dentists rather than diminish it!

Dentophobia may be the result of earlier traumatic experiences that can be directly (or indirectly) linked to a specific object or situation, but this is not always the case because fears can also be inherited as learned behaviours from the social context in which a person is brought up.

The good news is that the majority of people who suffer with a fear of Dentists will find a course of psychotherapy highly beneficial.

Therapy & Counselling for the Fear of Dentists

You can read more about the different types of psychological therapy for the fear of Dentists below.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for the Fear of Dentists

If you’re determined to overcome your fear of Dentists then we highly recommend following our 10 session Tranceformental CBT programme with Paul.

T-CBT is a clinically proven psychotherapy course that will teach you everything you need to know to understand your problem, identify any limiting beliefs and unhelpful thinking styles that you might have developed in order to cope, and then provide guidance on how to make changes to your thinking and behaviours to irradicate the problems.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has an excellent track-record with problems based on anxiety and fearful cognitions (thoughts) which are key factors in the fear of Dentists.

Alternative Psychotherapies for the Fear of Dentists

Although we generally recommend CBT for Dentophobia, we also offer alternative psychotherapies for people preferring a different approach.

These include:

Psychodynamic therapy which focuses on understanding why the problem has arisen and relies on the therapy relationship to bring about change.

Counselling which is less formally structured than CBT but still provides a safe and non-judgmental environment in which to discuss issues. Talking problems through with a skilled counsellor is often therapeutic in its own right.

Hypnotherapy is an alternative form of psychotherapy that can be applied to a very wide range of problems and is available with Joan.

Free Initial Consultations for the Fear of Dentists

We offer all prospective clients FREE initial consultations to discuss your Dentophobia problems prior to commencing any psychotherapy programmes.

The consultation and lasts around 50 minutes.

During this consultation we will discuss the various solutions that are available to you and make a considered recommendation based on your individual personal circumstances.

Initial consultations are also available online.

We recognise the importance of the therapy relationship in helping people to bring about effective change, so it is important to meet (either face-to-face or online) before deciding to follow a course of psychotherapy.

Our policy is to help people make a fully balanced & considered decision about undertaking work with us, including both the financial and personal implications.