The fact is that our visit to the dentist is only sometimes pleasant. 

But why is this happened  and how can it be changed?  

Did you know about it? 

Did you know that the experience of fear is imprinted in our DNA from the primitive period of human evolution? It has proven life-saving in dealing with survival situations involving food gathering, natural hazards, disasters and wars, invasions of other races, and reproduction. 

In these threat situations, survival instincts are mobilized. They are genetically programmed tendencies that are related to the unconscious part of the brain and, when mobilized, result in certain behaviours such as: 

• Fight: Need to attack. 
• Flight: Wanting to flee the place/situation we are in. 
• Numbness: Physical, in the body, or mental. Suddenly, we can’t react.
• Emotional disconnect. 
• Tendency to vomit. 
• Fainting. 
• Surrender: We surrender the weapons. 

So when a person experiences a threat, these automatic tendencies become active. They then set the stage for intense emotions, blockages, and symptoms to express themselves in the physical body. 

This is precisely what happens when we feel fear during a dental visit. 

What does the dentist have to do with it? 

The dentist is a reflection of our parents’ care and guardianship. They care for our teeth as our parents cared for us in childhood by fulfilling our needs for safety, nourishment, warmth, love, and support. 

The dentist enters the mouth, representing an intensely charged private space connected to our development and vital functions.  

Strong emotions associated with early childhood, such as: 

• Oppression 
• Violence 
• Rejection 
• Physical or verbal abuse 
• Abandonment or verbal abuse may re-emerge during treatment and mobilize survival instincts that, in turn, block the therapeutic process.
   

A person who feels betrayed or did not receive adequate care from their parents tends to replicate a similar experience in their relationship with their dentist.  

How many people aren’t desperately searching for the ideal dentist who will take on the task of restoring their teeth and smile? The persistence or anger accompanying some of their demands on the treating dentist indicates that patients expect too much from them. 

It is natural and comforting to hope that by opening our mouths, the dentist will heal and relieve us of pain. We are justified in seeking the care of a competent and skillful dentist.

But are we not aware that the dentist who takes us on reflects our relationship with our parents, the traumas of our childhood, the choices we make, and the way we treat ourselves?  

The person who is suffering from problems with their teeth will seek a dentist who will try to save their teeth. 

But will there be a savior dentist or does the treatment start with the patient first?

The way each person  approaches the treatment is crucial. Finding a “good” dentist requires understanding how we treat ourselves and accepting to look pain in the face without running away.  

Often, just changing our behavior and the realizations we make brings a trusted person on our path who will help us with understanding and respect. Is it luck or coincidence? 

Are we ready to care for our wounds and attract the appropriate healing dentist?

If we remain locked into self-destructive patterns, we attract dentists who treat us poorly or leave us dissatisfied. Consequently, the dentist turns from savior to tormentor, and we experience a victim – perpetrator relationship. 

A medical error does not happen accidentally, even if it results from the dentist’s clumsiness or negligence. It performs a tension related to our experiences and beliefs.  

In some ways, the medical error is similar to the trauma that surfaces to remind us of our experience as children with rejection, the violation of our boundaries, abuse, and our desperate need for love, support, and respect. 

Through their relationship with the dentist, the patient tries to settle accounts with his parents, father, or mother. 

Do these emotions we feel in visiting the dentist, and our expectations for restoration help us connect with our inner self? 

Have you ever wondered if they might help us realize what acceptance and healing mean at all levels of our being? 

Can we choose the appropriate dental therapist and build a relationship of trust and mutual respect? 

The premise above will lead us from accepting and loving ourselves to healing and restoring abnormal conditions in our mouths.