Fear of dentists

■ Zhejiang doctors designed the first oral clinical fear questionnaire in China.

■ In the future, psychological intervention before going to the dentist will be the development direction of medical humanization.

A gentleman has a toothache. He was timid and said, "Doctor, try to make me brave." The dentist made him drink a catty of white wine. "Now you have the courage?" "Ok, doctor, I'll see which bastard dares to touch my teeth!"

Sam: "Dad, that doctor didn't pull out his teeth painlessly as reported in the newspaper."

Dad: "Do you feel pain?"

Sam: "No. However, when I bit his thumb, he screamed like other dentists. "

In all kinds of jokes

There are many jokes about doctors in hospitals, among which dentists can be said to be the most ridiculed doctors. Most of these jokes are cold and humorous, which not only makes people smile, but also expresses people's nervousness and fear about asking a dentist to see a dentist.

So, what makes us afraid of going to the dentist? I'm afraid different people have different opinions, but after a while, there will be a preliminary answer. A doctor in Tongde Hospital of the province specially designed and compiled a questionnaire, which will also be the first oral clinical fear questionnaire in China.

Fear of going to the dentist is actually an anxiety.

The person in charge of this project is Dr. Xu Zhongfang from the Psychology Department of Tongde Hospital. "Actually, fear of going to the dentist is a kind of anxiety," said Xu Zhongfang. "Why does anxiety vary from person to person? Only by finding these very personalized reasons can doctors effectively carry out psychological intervention on patients. "

It is understood that the current dental clinical fear questionnaire is based on the dental anxiety and fear scale of Washington University, adding some questions that are in line with China people's psychology. For example:

Do you get nervous for days at the thought of having your teeth pulled out?

Are you afraid that the doctor will knock his teeth with a hammer? Are you worried that the tooth extraction will not be smooth, such as not pulling it out?

Are you afraid of losing too much blood?

Don't you trust doctors? Actually, this tooth doesn't have to be pulled out.

Xu said that through these questions, doctors can not only know the root of patients' anxiety, but also know the degree of patients' anxiety according to the final evaluation results.

Just look at the numbers.

According to the plan, researchers will select 98 medical staff (22 males and 76 females) from four wards of a provincial hospital and 125 students (97 males and 28 females) from 32 bedrooms of a student apartment building of a medical university.

These respondents will answer the designed survey form, and the researchers will draw relevant conclusions after statistics, and the evaluation results will be quantified by the index of 1-4.

"1 is no anxiety and fear, 1 to 2 is a little anxiety and fear, 2 to 3 is more anxiety and fear, and more than 3 is a lot of anxiety and fear."

Psychological intervention may be necessary before going to the dentist.

Dr. Xu said that dental phobia is a unique psychological state of anxiety, tension or fear in dental treatment. Children, teenagers, adults and even the elderly have anxiety and fear about dental treatment. "It has become one of the main problems that hinder oral health care service."

Now, doctors pay more and more attention to these problems. In the future, doctors may need appropriate psychological intervention for those patients who are afraid of going to the dentist according to the situation. For example, for slight anxiety and fear, dentists can basically alleviate patients' fear through friendly service attitude and precise technical actions. When this anxiety and fear are obvious, dentists need to spend more time communicating with patients before operation. When some patients take actions to avoid medical treatment and refuse doctors' orders because of serious anxiety and fear, doctors may also need to give patients an appropriate dose of anti-anxiety agents to relieve anxiety symptoms.

Dr. Xu said that most of the previous psychological test scales were aimed at mental patients. In fact, patients in any general hospital, even their families, may have emotional problems such as anxiety and tension. Paying attention to their emotional problems will be the development direction of future medical humanization.