“Their mouth would be a mess, a disaster”
Odontophobia (fear of visiting a dentist) only effects around 20% of people worldwide. But now Jean Paul Demajo, a maltese dental and implant surgeon has decided to set up a hypnosis clinic as he has come across too many people suffering from this phobia.
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| Dentist opens new clinic to help his patients' phobia |
The idea first came to Dr Demajo when he noticed a few of his patients weren't comfortable in the environment and would rather bear excruciating toothache than going to a clinic.
Worried about people's oral health, Demajo researched further into the phobia, as he might find a way to help his clients. The information explained that no one is born with odontophobia - it is formed with terrible experiences, particularly in childhood.
From his own experience, Demajo says that "this fear is quite common among senior citizens" As back in the 1960's there were work books on how to strap children in the chair whilst dentists worked on them. He then went onto say "Obviously, if you’re a five-year old and you’re tied to a chair, you’re petrified! But now its completely different and we want to show that there is no danger"
However people who are scared of the dentist themselves wouldn't take their children or grandchildren to the dentist because they fear going themselves. These such children would end up going to the dentist for the first time in their adulthood!
As Dr Demajo is a dentist he has no experience or qualifications to hypnotise; so he has asked a local hypnotherapist to help him; overjoyed with the opportunity he mentioned: "It is a great feeling knowing that I am changing people’s lives, it really is".
The aim of the sessions will be to eliminate the phobia; therefore the surrounding will not include dental chairs or any tooth-extraction equipment. This is because Dr Demajo wants the process of overcoming the fear to be steady and successful.
We wish them all the best.
Sheila x
