Application of hypno-dissociative strategies during dental treatment of patients with severe dental phobia.

Dental phobia is a well-known condition that may prevent patients from receiving adequate dental care. Dentists offer varied methods to help their patients overcome their phobic reactions and to enable them to proceed with needed dental treatment. These methods include diverse medical and behavioral interventions that are generally intended to regulate physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional expressions of stress. Some patients with severe dental phobia together with actual or assumed traumatic background are only minimally responsive to these stress management procedures. The authors propose hypnotically induced dissociative strategies as a model of intervention for this category of dental phobic patients. The proposed model can help reduce or even suspend symptomatic behavior during dental treatment.