Sweating, racing heart, dizziness, millions of Germans have dentist-fear

What you can do if the dentist is fear of the disease

Millions of people in Germany were scared of the dentist. Just the thought of the treatment ensures you health problems. However those Affected can be helped. Experts explain, what helps to combat dental phobia is best.

Five million German citizens with dental phobia

Probably no one will claim to like to go to the dentist. But there are also people who are afraid of such treatment properly. “In Germany alone, there are approximately 5 million people with dental treatment phobia,” writes the German society of dental phobia® (DGZP) on your website. Many of them do not go to the dentist. However, there are a lot of things that can help Concerned.

Morbid Fear Of

The fear of the dentist can be so bad that she is sick.

This can have serious consequences:

“In the case of a dental phobia to be Concerned, appearing not even in practice, and the often over many years,” explains the specialist dentist for oral surgery, Prof. Peter Jöhren, in a communication to the news Agency dpa.

From a dental phobia are also affected, according to the Federal chamber of dentists (BZÄK) for about five to ten percent of the people in Germany.

In this psychosomatic anxiety disorder Sufferers get downright panic when they think about visiting the dentist.

“The outbreaks, for example, in the Form of sweat, palpitations, dizziness, and circulatory problems,” the senior physician at the clinic for conservative dentistry, Preventive and children’s dentistry at the University of Bern, Thomas Wolf, in front of the dpa.

Fear can have several causes. “Often it is experienced before the pain, during and after a dental treatment, leading affected patients to avoid,” explains Jöhren, the head of the dental clinic Bochum.

So 86 percent of the affected patients reported in a study that they had experienced in the treatment chair traumatizing experiences – to happened 70 percent of this in Childhood.

Untreated inflamed teeth can be dangerous

What, then, against the fear of dental treatment do?

You can try to ensure, through regular maintenance to ensure that dental pain arise in the first place, but if it comes to it, needs to be traded.

Finally, inflamed teeth that are not treated over a long period of time can have fatal consequences. “Possible serious acute and chronic diseases,” explains BZÄK-Vice-President Prof. Dietmar Oesterreich in the Agency message.

As it explains, the bacteria on the affected Tooth also deep into the jaw bone to penetrate. And about the circulation of the blood, it can be sometimes life-threatening inflammation in the body.

Help from psychotherapists

This makes it clear that the phobia needs to be treated. “But that is not the task of the dental doctors, but by trained psychotherapists,” says Wolf.

A scared patient in acute pain, make a dental therapy cannot be postponed, can be set, where appropriate, under sedation or under General anesthesia.

However, General anesthesia should be carried out according to Austrian “only in acutely necessary treatment.” Finally, the phobia is overcome.

This can be done to reach the Patient only with the help of a psychotherapist, for example, in the context of Anti-anxiety training at the Affected cautiously to the Situation at the dentist.

“At the first meeting it is important, with information and empathy that often the patient lost trust in the dentist to rebuild,” says Jöhren.

The physician should inquire sensitively to the Wishes of the patient and write it down so that you will not forget.

“Some patients it helps, for example, if you during the treatment, using headphones to listen to their favorite music or relaxation music in the Background,” said Wolf, according to dpa.

Thanks to modern procedure is also pain-free dental nowadays are already treatments possible. Some of them do drills and fillings unnecessary.

“In order for the psychotherapy to have long-term success, it is crucial that the Patient makes in the dental treatments are no bad experiences,” says Jöhren.

According to the experts, even the smallest breaches of the agreements between a therapist, a dentist or Patient can lead to more defensive behavior. “The promise of pain-free treatment must not be broken”, Jöhren. (ad)