Dental fear

Dental fear, odontophobia, or dentophobia, is a normal emotional reaction to one or more specific threatening stimuli in the dental situation. However, dental anxiety is indicative of a state of apprehension that something dreadful is going to happen in relation to dental treatment, and it is usually coupled with a sense of losing control. Similarly, dental phobia denotes a severe type of dental anxiety, and is characterized by marked and persistent anxiety in relation to either clearly discernible situations or objects (e.g. drilling, local anesthetic injections) or to the dental setting in general. The term 'dental fear and anxiety' (DFA) is often used to refer to strong negative feelings associated with dental treatment among children, adolescents and adults, whether or not the criteria for a diagnosis of dental phobia are met. Dental phobia can include fear of dental procedures, dental environment or setting, fear of dental instruments or fear of the dentist as a person. People with dental phobia often avoid the dentist and neglect oral health, which may lead to painful dental problems and ultimately force a visit to the dentist. The emergency nature of this appointment may serve to worsen the phobia. This phenomenon may also be called the cycle of dental fear. Dental anxiety typically starts in childhood. There is the potential for this to place strains on relationships and negatively impact on employment.

Dental fear, anxiety, and phobia seem to be interchangeably used, however, there is a fundamental difference between each.

Dental anxiety is fear of the unknown. It's the worry that people commonly experience because they are about to do something that they have never done, possibly going to dental clinic for the first time or getting a new procedure.

Dental fear is a response to past negative experiences that triggers apprehension.

Dental phobia is a severe, irrational fear of dental situations leading to complete avoidance of dental care, often impacting daily functioning and health.

As with all types of fear and phobias, dental fear can manifest as single or combination of emotional, physiological, cognitive and behavioural symptoms.

Dental Phobia can be classified into 3 broad classes:

Emotional response