[Phenomenon of dental fear]

Odontophobia is a rather unique phobia with special psychosomatic components that impact on the dental health of odontophobic persons. It also has psychosocial components largely as a result of destruction of the teeth and subsequent embarrassment that can affect a person and cause a vicious cycle of dental fear. The phenomenon is facilitated by misunderstandings and myths generated by both patients and dentists. The most common reasons given in the literature for such strong fears of dental treatment are: 1) bad experiences in childhood for 85% of cases, 2) feeling of powerlessness and lack of control over personal emotional reactions and over the social situation in the dental chair, 3) social learning processes in which the image of the dentist is cast in a negative light by the mass media or by the person's relatives or friends and 4) that the person has other psychologic problems (in 20% of cases), such as serious phobias and/or neuroses. A strategy of researching and thus tackling the problem is presented which focuses on three essential targets that require studying and change: 1) the community at large and their image of the dentist, 2) the patient role and 3) the dentist role. Various model projects are presented along with their diagnostic systems. These are seen to focus in varying degrees on different elements of the target groups that effect the dentist-patient relationship but the need to come out into the community and make the social environment right for these patients is an important factor in all strategies.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)