While the hypnosis method in dental treatment is applied in some private hospitals; It started to be implemented for the first time within the Ministry of Health. Dental treatment with hypnosis, which is used for patients with dentist fear, is performed for the first time at Etimesgut Oral and Dental Health Center in Ankara. In the treatment applied by chief dentist Asuman Mermerci, those who have a fear of dentists as well as those who are allergic to anesthetics can have dental procedures done without anesthetics. During the treatment process, patients’ fears are first eliminated through hypnosis, and then treatment is administered.
‘HYPNOSIS IS AN ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT’
Asuman Mermerci, Chief Physician of Etimesgut Oral and Dental Health Center, said, “Hypnosis is actually a system based on suggestion by definition. And hypnosis is mentioned in the book as a half-sleep, half-wake state. However, hypnosis is much more than these, it is a door opening to the subconscious. We use hypnosis in our clinic, dentist. We use it in our patients who have teeth grinding problems, as well as in our patients who are allergic to anesthesia, especially in our children because they have a very large amount of teeth. “If there is a fear of a dentist and we cannot perform any dental treatment on our child, we normally refer them to general anesthesia and sedation, but hypnosis is an alternative treatment to general anesthesia in our children,” he said.
‘IMAGINARY THERAPY DURING HYPNOSIS’
Mermerci said that some children have difficulty even sitting on the couch and said, “First of all, we say to these children, ‘Let’s play games’, we have small toys. We apply hypnotherapy to our children with our small materials, which we call ‘Abstrakt’. First of all, we help them overcome their fear of the dentist. Our main goal is to provide confidence in the physician.” After establishing their trust, we give them a virtual dental treatment and then we apply it to the real thing, but we have seen that it also applies to our older patients. There are so many dental phobias that some patients could not sit in the dental chair even at very old ages. We also make them close their eyes and perform an imaginary treatment under hypnosis. We see their reactions there. “Then we apply the truth of this treatment,” he said.
‘WE DID NOT HAVE A FAILURE CASE’
Noting that people experience dental phobia at a higher rate than thought, Mermerci said, “According to research, it has been shown that one in every 6 people in the world has dental phobia. This situation affects our patients very much. Because patients who can come for a very small tooth decay for a very simple filling, end up with tooth decay when they do not come.” When we prevent dental phobia, the patient comes to treatment easily. In addition, when we consider the economy of the patient and the country, hypnosis also makes a great contribution, we will give examples from our own clinical studies. “We have never had a case where we failed. As Ankara Etimesgut Oral and Dental Health Center, we are the first and only public hypnosis clinic in Turkey,” he said.
Ömer Bahadır Öcal (27), who underwent root canal treatment using hypnosis at the clinic, stated that he fainted when he saw a needle due to dental phobia before the hypnosis treatment and said, “I have not been able to have blood drawn or needles taken for 15 years. I had great concerns when I came here. But now I am finally sitting in this chair.” “I can have my dental procedures done thanks to hypnosis,” he said.
DHA