There is no sufficient explanation why so many people fear to visit the dentist.
The fear affects everyone from the toddler to the muscle trainer.
One can begin to wonder what the dentists have that has effectively meant that they are one of the feared professions in the world.
After all dental treatment is meant to improve your health and appearance.
Logic would suggest that everyone would be anxious to visit the dentist.
The development of modern medicine has gone some way in trying to allay some of the fears that people face when they go to the dentist.
For example pain is no longer so much of an issue because of the introduction of very powerful pain killers.
Yet still people would prefer to avoid the dentist.
Many of the patients who are so uneasy at the prospect of visiting their dentist are at loss to explain their reluctance.
Some people say that it is the sound of the buzzing equipment that is so worrying or the fact that someone is busy fiddling in your mouth and you cannot even scream at them to stop.
It somehow seems like a violation of one's mouth to have to surrender your dignity to the doctor.
One wonders what dentists make of all of this.
They must realize that it is not good PR practice to have your customers fearing to enter your venue of operation.
Things that increase the anxiety The films have also not been particularly kind to the dentistry industry.
There is a film that created the most terrifying scenario of a sadistic dentist who decided to operate without pain killers.
In the old war movies about the Nazis there was an emphasis on the dentists as clinically detached from the horrors that were going round them.
You got away with the impression that the dentist was someone who was capable of inflicting very great damage on you but at the same time you could not do anything about it if they decided to exercise this power.
The dentist profession appears to have recognized this fear among their clients and they have decided to do everything in their power to make the visit to the dentist as comfortable as possible.
The use of painkillers is now mandatory and the dentist will try to talk to their patient in an effort to reduce their anxiety.
They also ensure that they use all the recommended medications to limit the amount pain that their customers face.
I think this has gone a long way in alleviating some of the image problems that have plagued the dentistry industry.
What is more concerning is the fact that many people are being put off going to the dentist because of their fears.
This has become more of psychological rather than physical issue.
Ones suggestion is to visit a psychoanalyst who will able to decipher any lingering doubts and provide the patient with the mechanisms to cope with the dentists.
Some specialists have started providing this support in the hope that it will improve attendances.