Fearful patients can make their visit to a dentist a lot easier with the help of hypnosis. Jerry Massimei, D.D.S., A.P.C., is a dentist who specializes in providing gentle, experienced dental care to residents in Chula Vista, Eastlake and Bonita, California and runs his own practice, Jerry Massimei Dentistry. Here he discusses how this gentle and soothing power of suggestion can make a dental visit a lot more bearable.
Dental hypnosis, like hypnosis in other fields, has been used to a small degree of success. Its primary goal is to reduce the fears or even phobias that some patients have about dentistry, and in some cases also reduce the amount of perceived pain during procedures.
Some people are wary of hypnosis, but there is no need to be that way. In hypnosis, people never do what they would not normally do, so fears that you will run around clucking like a chicken if you are “hypnotized” are completely unfounded.
What is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis is primarily a suggestive device that truly highly depends on a person’s ability to have things suggested to them, whereupon they act in a certain physiological way. This is not to give the impression that hypnosis is not real. Hypnosis is a factual matter and it’s just a matter of “what is effective, works.”
Many dentists, including myself, use a form of hypnosis and suggestion throughout the working day. That manifests itself primarily is in the mannerisms of the dentist, what we call the “chairside” manner, to produce a state of calm and security for the patient. It is a subliminal type of hypnosis that is effective, especially for children.
Check Credentials First
It takes an extra degree of post-graduate training for hypnosis, which means that anyone who is looking for that sort of thing should thoroughly check out the credentials of the person who is using it. Ask your dentist, doctor or any reputable healthcare professional for a recommendation.
Using a professional hypnosis prior to dentistry can be effective with some people as well. Whether it will be successful or not is very much dependent upon the individual’s own characteristics, as mentioned above. Some people respond amazingly well from the beginning. For other people, hypnosis will not work at all.
Harnessing your own subconscious to make you relax and feel better is a powerful tool that can help many fearful patients feel more comfortable about visiting the dentist. If you are interested in trying dental hypnosis and seeing if it works for you, ask your dentist if he is qualified. If not, find someone who is.
The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.
