Most Common Causes of Dental Fears and Phobias

• Bad experiences: Dental phobia is most often caused by bad, or in some cases horrific, dental experiences (studies suggest that this is true for about 80 -85% of dental phobias).
• A history of abuse: Dental phobia is also common in people who have been sexually abused, particularly in childhood. A history of bullying or having been physically or emotionally abused by a person in authority may also contribute to developing dental phobia, especially in combination with bad experiences with dentists.
• Uncaring dentist: It is often thought, even among dental professionals, that it is the fear of pain that keeps people from seeing a dentist. But even where pain is the person’s major concern, it is not pain per se that is necessarily the problem. Otherwise, dental phobics would not avoid the dentist even when in pain from toothache. Rather, it is pain inflicted by a dentist who is perceived as cold and controlling that has a huge psychological impact. Pain inflicted by a dentist who is perceived as caring is much less likely to result in psychological trauma.
• Humiliation: Other causes of dental phobia include insensitive, humiliating remarks by a dentist or hygienist. In fact, insensitive remarks and the intense feelings of humiliation they provoke are one of the main factors which can cause or contribute to a dental phobia. Human beings are social animals, and negative social evaluation will upset most people, apart from the most thick-skinned individuals. If you’re the sensitive type, negative evaluation can be shattering.
• Vicarious learning: Another cause is observational learning. If a parent or other caregiver is scared of dentists, children may pick up on this and learn to be scared as well, even in the absence of bad experiences. Also, hearing other people’s horror stories about visits to the psychodentist can have a similar effect.
• Preparedness: Some subtypes of dental phobia may indeed be defined as “irrational” in the traditional sense. People may be inherently “prepared” to learn certain phobias, such as needle phobia. For millions of years people who quickly learned to avoid snakes, heights, and lightning (and sharp objects, such as needles, which would not have been sterilized in those days, apart from giving you a nasty sting!) probably had a good chance to survive and to transmit their genes. So it may not take a painful encounter with a needle to develop a phobia.
• Post-Traumatic Stress: Research suggests that people who’ve had horrific dental experiences (unsurprisingly) suffer from symptoms typically reported by people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is characterized by intrusive thoughts of the bad experience and nightmares about dentists or dental situations.

If you have experienced any of these causes or had a unique experience that you feel has lead to fear or phobia and would like to discuss how to start overcoming it and get on the oral health track call our office today 732.356.9120. Dr. Reilly and his team are ready to help you, with caring and compassionate service we will help guide you to a relaxed and comfortable dental experience.