Abstract
The patient was a 44-year-old male referred from the department of operative dentistry in our hospital. His chief complaint was inability to receive caries treatment because of gagging, although he had a lot of dental caries.
We selected behavioral therapy to reduce his dental phobia. This treatment was performed about once a week in the early stage. First of all, we encouraged him to become inured to the dental mirror, forceps and suction. He tried hard to overcome his dental phobia and accepted our treatment. After about a month, he was able to receive root canal treatment of the front teeth in the maxilla. He was soon able to wear the temporary bridge on the front teeth and was very satisfied with the result. For personal reasons, he finished receiving dental treatment at our hospital and looked for another dentist in his neighborhood. He particularly wanted a female dentist in his neighborhood whom he could trust to continue his dental treatment at her own surgery. He was finally able to have a molar tooth extracted under local anesthesia without any trouble.
He has recently been coming back to our department about once a month and we encourage him to discuss his anxiety and questions about dental treatment in order to assuage his fear.
