Dentophobia, also referred to as odontophobia, is an intense and erroneous fear of dentists, dental procedures, and dental clinics. Dentophobia is grave and out of proportion to the scenario and potential risks, even though many people detest dentists and may experience fear or anxiety whenever they visit the dentist. When someone has severe dentophobia, they might avoid going to the dentist even when they are in pain, suffer from dental problems, or require treatment.
Your oral health and general well-being may suffer significantly if you put off receiving dental care when needed. Minor infections or easily treatable cavities can cause severe tooth decay and damage if left untreated. In addition to making your teeth look unattractive, poor oral hygiene can also cause bad breath. If you have questions about dentophobia, contact a dentist in Myers Park, Charlotte, NC, today.
How can you decipher if your fear is merely fear of dentists or dentophobia?
It can be challenging to distinguish between dentophobia and the terror of dentists. Nevertheless, there are a few significant variations. Your dentophobia must include unreasonable, uncontrollable, and intense feelings of fear, panic, or anxiety to be considered a phobia, including:
- Stress that is excessive given the possible threat.
- It lasts for more than half a year.
- Adversely affects your daily existence.
One kind of specific phobia is dentophobia. A persistent, excessive, and unjustified fear of a particular thing, circumstance, activity, or person is known as a specific phobia; in this case, it is an intense fear of dentists.
Dentophobia is a multifaceted disorder with multiple components.
Your phobia of dentists might be connected to one or more of these factors:
- A fear of pain
Some people think that receiving dental care is painful. Dental procedures, especially those like tooth extractions, can be painful, either during the process or in the days & hours that follow. A fear of pain associated with the dentist that turns into a phobia can occur in people who are extremely sensitive to pain, have had a bad experience at the dentist in the past, or have a bad association between the dentist & pain.
- A fear of the dentist
This relates to a fear of dentists and dental assistants. Like iatrophobia, which is a fear of doctors, a fear of dentists can have an internal cause. Your fear may be related to the treatments they perform, how they dress, the tools they use, or the general traits of a dentist.
- A fear of needles
Individuals who are needle-phobic or who have trypanophobia—an intense fear of needles in a health-related environment—often also acquire a fear of other locations and circumstances in which they might come into contact with needles, such as the dentist.