Conditioning And The Origin Of Dental Phobia

If you dread the dentist, then you are not alone. 50% of Americans are afraid of the dentist. How does this common fear of the dentist become the disabling disorder of dental phobia?

A dental phobia is a persistent and unreasonable fear that results in a compelling desire to avoid the dreaded object, activity or situation. There are three characteristics that distinguish a phobia from ordinary, everyday fears. First, you are persistently afraid of the situation over a long period of time. Second, you know that your fear is unreasonable, even though this recognition does not help to dispel it. Finally, what is most characteristic of a phobia is your avoidance of the feared situation. Being unreasonably afraid of something is not yet a phobia; the phobia begins when you actually start avoiding what you fear.

Only when you start to avoid that situation do you "learn" to be phobic. A cardinal principle in behavioral psychology is that any behavior that is rewarded tends to be repeated. Avoiding a situation you're anxious about is obviously rewarded - the reward being the reduction of anxiety. Each time you avoid the situation, the reward of being relieved of anxiety follows, and so your behavior gets strengthened and tends to be repeated. Your avoidance works very will in saving you from anxiety. Learning to stay away from a fearful situation because it is rewarding to do so is what constitutes conditioning by avoidance. Avoidance conditioning is the most critical process in the formation of any phobia.

The most effective way to overcome a phobia is simply to face it. Continuing to avoid a situation that frightens you is, more that anything else, what keeps the phobia alive. Having to face a particular situation you have been avoiding for years may at the outset seem an impossible task. Instead of entering a situation all at once, you can do it gradually in small increments. Here at Adult Dentistry of Rochester, we practice the process of desensitization, or exposure, which is the unlearning of the connection between anxiety and the dental experience. The goal is to unlearn the connection between a phobic situation and re-associate feelings of relaxation and safety with that particular situation. We can train you to relax and feel safe in response to the dental experience so that you will no longer feel anxious about it. Relaxation and anxiety are incompatible responses, so the goal of desensitization is to learn to remain in the phobic situation and be calm at the same time.

Exposure therapy demands a strong commitment on your part. If you're genuinely committed to overcoming your dental phobia, then (1), you'll be willing to take the risk to start facing the dentistry that you may have been avoiding for years, (2), tolerate the initial discomfort that entering the dental office, even in small increments, often involves, and (3), persist in practicing exposure on a consistent basis, despite probable setbacks, over a long enough period of time to allow your complete recovery. Generally, this takes from six months to two years. If you're ready to make a genuine commitment to real-life desensitization, then you will recover from your dental phobia.  For practical, step-by-step directions for mastery of these techniques, refer to Dr. Edmund Bourne's, The Anxiety And Phobia Workbook.  For Dr. Dulski's help overcoming dental anxiety and phobia at Adult Dentistry of Rochester, visit http://www.dulski.com/oral.html.

Tags: Dental Phobia, Dental Anxiety, Sedation Dentistry