Hypnosis to Overcome Dental Phobia
I came across an excellent article today in the Irish Times about using hypnosis to overcome dental phobia. In my own practice, this is one of the more common fears. There is a saying that no one likes to go to the dentist, and I think this is more truism than saying. Dental visits can be very unpleasant, but they are necessary for good health and well being. Whilst dentistry has evolved over the decades our fears have not.
Very often these fears go back to childhood where dentists who perhaps had less patience with their patients would be a bit rough and rather insensitive especially to their younger patients. These fears grow with time and now, as adults, these patients want nothing to do with the dentist at all.
Now obviously there are many approaches that hypnosis professionals can employ to assist these clients to overcome the fear. One common way is to do a simple regression to the initial sensitising event in order to gain a better understanding of the fear which can then lead to the work being done. Also, a solution focused way of working has a place in that the fear is in the past and that the fear is not greater than the need for good healthcare. However you choose to work with this, if you have a fear of dentists hypnotherapy is a good way to work with it.
