Abstract
Chronic pain is often intractable due to a vicious cycle of factors, including the cognitive-behavioral attributes of the patient.
Therefore, it is important to use cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of chronic pain.
For this therapy to be effective, establishing a trusting relationship between the dentist and the patient is essential.
This requires acceptance of the patient’s thoughts as well as supportive listening.
When performing cognitive restructuring, it is necessary to apply the Socratic interview and other innovations.
When treating chronic pain, cognitive-behavioral factors must be addressed over time.
Therefore, the end goal of initial treatment should be to accept the pain well, while transforming the cognitive-behavioral factors that cause the pain, rather than curinge it. This will lead to improvement with decreased stress levels.
The dentist should ideally be “the person who intervenes cognitively and behaviorally to support the patient in coping with chronic pain” and the patient “the person who receives support from the dentist but also performs self-care,” with aiming to live with chronic pain in a manner compatible with the patient’s life.
