Hypnotherapy Q&As

Hypnotherapy for dental phobia: can it help?

Yes. Hypnotherapy calms the fear of the dentist, so you can book the check-up, sit in the chair and get the treatment you have been putting off.

Book a free consultationAll Q&As

Living with a fear of the dentist

Dental anxiety is very common, and for many people it goes beyond nerves. The thought of a check-up brings dread for days or weeks beforehand. The smell of the surgery, the sound of the drill or the sight of the chair can be enough to set it off. Some people cancel at the last minute, or leave the waiting room before being called. Others haven't been for years.

Dental phobia tends to grow quietly. A filling is put off, then a check-up, and as time passes, worry about what the dentist might find adds to the fear of going at all. Many people feel ashamed of the state of their teeth, which makes the first call even harder. There is no need for that: dentists see anxious patients every day, and you are far from alone.

What sets it off

Dental fear is personal, and it often has several parts. People commonly describe:

• The injection, or needles in general
• The sound and feel of the drill
• Gagging, or not being able to breathe properly with things in their mouth
• Lying back with someone leaning over them, and feeling trapped
• Not being able to see what is happening, or not being able to speak
• Fear of pain, often because of a bad experience in the past
• Embarrassment about their teeth, or being told off

For many people it began with one bad visit, often in childhood. The memory has been carried ever since, and the mind still treats the dentist's chair as a dangerous place.

How hypnotherapy helps with dental phobia

In hypnosis your mind can rehearse a situation in vivid detail while your body stays calm, and over a few sessions it learns a new response.

Sessions usually work on:

• The old memory. Looking back at a bad experience while you feel calm, so it stops setting the terms for every visit since.
• Rehearsal. Picturing the whole visit, booking, arriving, sitting back, opening wide, while staying relaxed. You go step by step, at your pace.
• Your particular triggers. The drill, the injection, gagging or feeling trapped, each worked on in turn.
• A technique for the chair. A quick self-hypnosis routine for the waiting room and during treatment, so you can settle yourself whenever you need to.

By the time you walk into the surgery, the visit has been rehearsed so calmly and so often that it feels familiar.

Working with your dentist

It helps to tell your dentist about your fear. Many practices are used to anxious patients and will agree a stop signal, explain each step before they do it, or book a longer slot so nothing feels rushed. Hypnotherapy works alongside all of that: you arrive calmer, and your dentist can do their job more easily.

If your fear is mainly about the injection, needle phobia is worth reading about too: see hypnotherapy for needle phobia. If you have a larger procedure ahead, such as an extraction or implant, Tim also helps people prepare for surgery and medical procedures.

Sounds, smells and the chair

For many people the fear starts before treatment does: the smell of the surgery, the whine of a drill from the next room, the chair tipping back under the bright light. Sessions take each of these in turn. Under hypnosis you notice the smell, hear the drill and feel the chair recline while staying settled, so the surgery itself stops setting off the alarm before your dentist has picked up an instrument.

After your first visit

Getting through one visit is a big step, and it makes the next one easier. Once any backlog of treatment is done, check-ups become short, routine visits, and a few minutes of self-hypnosis before each one helps keep the old fear from returning.

Getting started

Dental phobia is a specific phobia, and it responds to the same approach Tim uses for fears of all kinds. Read how that works under hypnotherapy for phobias in London. Sessions are in person in Farringdon, central London, or online, which many people find an easy first step.

Common questions

Read next

See needle phobia, phobias and panic attacks, or browse all Q&As.