Psychological Factors in Dental Patient Care: Odontophobia

Abstract

Dentistry and oral health are at the heart of the systemic health of humans. Often this branch of medicine is underestimated either due to socioeconomic reasons or due to fear. In fact, in dentistry, there is often a widespread condition of odontophobia among patients. A clinician's knowledge of this condition, and an accompanying understanding of how to successfully manage it, is surely one of the first steps to gaining a patient's trust and maintaining his or her patronage. Being able to manage a dental phobic patient in the best way is the key to successful therapy. Psychological techniques often have to work alongside dentistry in managing these patients. A future perspective concerns precisely the implementation of non-invasive practices such as hypnosis in the management of the latter.

Keywords: anxiety; behavior and behavior mechanisms; dental anxiety; dentistry; hypnosis; patient care management; psychological.