People With Dental Phobia May Benefit From Cognitive Behavior Therapy.

HealthDay (1/6, Doheny) reports that “new research shows that talk therapy can help when” a patient’s anxiety over a visit to the dentist “becomes a crippling phobia.” After sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which “focused on replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, the patients took away a set of skills to help tackle their anxiety.” The study included 130 adults, about three-quarters of which “were so fearful they had full-fledged dental phobia,” while “the others had anxiety about some aspect of dentistry.” After CBT, “79 percent of the patients went on to have dental treatment without the need for sedation.” The study was published in November in the British Dental Journal. Additional information on managing dental anxiety is available at MouthHealthy.org.