23/09/2022
Dealing with Dental Imaging Phobia – Helping your patients overcome their fear and misconceptions
Mai Kelly – Consultant CPsychol. And Head of Sales and Marketing – CBCT for CT-Dent and Cavendish Imaging.
Dental patients who require imaging often hold misconceptions about the equipment and process of scanning; This can lead to unnecessary concerns and distress;
Dental imaging phobia is a condition related to claustrophobia - Its symptoms range across a continuum - from mild fear and concerns to complete avoidance and severe symptoms of panic and anxiety;
This often intense and paralysing fear leads to avoidance, deterioration of dental health and a loss of revenue for the dentist;
As a dental practitioner there are a number of things we can do to help our patients -
The phobia can be addressed using pharmacological, psychotherapeutic or relaxation training interventions or combination of all.
What can help?
1 Always start by listening to your patients
2 Provide a respectful and open safe space for them to relay their fears and concerns
3 Practice short relaxing breathing techniques with them (Yoga Nidra breathing techniques are easy to use and teach for example and their impact is rapid)
4 Use Guided imagery techniques (these can be easily found online)
5 Use positive reinforcement (praise them for any progress they make, its terrifying for them)
6 For Dentists and Radiographers (or anyone operating the scanning devices) – A ‘dry run’ to diffuse the ‘worst case scenario’ they might be holding in mind.
7 Agree on and use Stop/ Safety signalling (This could be a greatly reassuring starting point in establishing trust with the patient)
8 Suggest supportive therapy
9 Equip yourself with a lot of patience – this process could take some time and the patient might only be able to overcome one hurdle or one stage of their ‘worry list’ at the time (this is often referred to as ‘graded exposure technique’).
