Phobias are generally defined as a severe or irrational fear that leads to a desperate avoidance of the feared object, activity or situation. The term phobia is derived from "phobos", which is fear in Greek.

Most phobias create a significant anxiety response that can cause the person suffering from it to frantically avoid that feared object or activity, or may even cause them to experience a panic attack. One phobia that is often misunderstood but that is still quite prevalent is the dental phobia, which is characterized by an irrational fear of dentists or dentistry.

What does it mean to have a dental phobia?

People suffering from a dental phobia will spend an unusual amount of time thinking about their own teeth, or about dentists, dental offices and other dental related situations. Because there is so much focus on teeth in dental commercials, billboards and the media, it becomes stressful for someone with a dental phobia simply to live their life every day.

People with a dental phobia may obsess about their own teeth, chronically over-brushing or over caring for their teeth in a fruitless attempt to avoid any commercial dentistry.

What does it mean to be dental phobic?

The official diagnosis for dental phobia according to the DSM-IV or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is a marked and a persistent fear of dental services or dental practitioners that is either excessive or is unreasonable in nature. In most cases, someone who has a dental phobia has developed that phobia for a reason, either because they have had a bad experience with a dentist or dental visit, or because they have heard stories, seen pictures or seen media that led them to develop a severe dislike or fear of the concept.

Most people suffering from a dental phobia have nothing else wrong with them, except for an overwhelming aversion to all things related to dental care.

What forms of dental phobias exist?

Dental phobias come in three different forms: Anxieties, Phobias and Fears. Dental anxieties are reactions to an unknown danger. For example, someone being severely afraid of something simply because they have never experienced it before is an example of a dental anxiety.

Dental fears are reactions to known dangers, such as being afraid of something because it has been experienced before. Dental phobias are not unlike dental fears, except that they are far more irrational or overwhelming than traditional dental fear, which makes them difficult to live with.

How is a dental phobia treated?

One of the most effective means of treating a dental phobia, which is an unhealthy and debilitating phobia, is NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming. This is a form of therapy that is unlike anything else out there right now because it doesn't concentrate on traditional therapy using diagnosis or assessment of mental or behavioral disorders, but rather works directly with the client and his or her own self-perceived beliefs.

What makes neuro-linguistic programming such a popular option for the treatment and curing of phobias is the fact that it can achieve exceptional results in as little as twenty minutes. This means that people suffering from debilitating and overwhelming phobias can return to their normal, simple every day lives with as little as twenty minutes worth of treatment.

There are two different forms of therapies that are used to treat phobias with NLP or Neuro-Linguistic programming.

The first, projection booth therapy allows the patient to look at him or herself in a theater from the projection booth. Viewing one's self overcoming the phobia allows him or her to overcome its debilitating symptoms.

The second, logical levels of therapy, involves scrambling how the brain stores the phobia so that the original reaction to the phobia is no longer the automatic reaction to it. Both of these are extremely effective methods of treatment for people who are suffering from debilitating and overwhelming phobias, including but not limited to dental phobias and dental related phobias.

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