Many patients dislike needles almost as much as they do dental drills, and there is an alternative: hypnosis.
The word ‘hypnosis’ comes from the Greek word for sleep. It sounds ancient, but in fact the word was newly-minted in the 19th century. The first person to try ‘hypnodontics’ was Jean-Victor Oudet, a Parisian doctor, who first used hypnosis when extracting a tooth from a patient in 1836.
Thanks to stage shows featuring hypnotists persuading audience members to do improbable things, most people are familiar with hypnotism. But how does it work? The simple answer is that no one knows. Most experts however agree
that hypnosis is a state of inner absorption, concentration and focused attention. People who have been hypnotised somehow suspend their awareness of their immediate environment.
It’s a commonplace experience for people to become so engrossed in a book that they fail to hear someone speaking to them. Car drivers with their minds elsewhere commonly experience being unable to remember driving for miles before some hazard jolts them back to consciousness.
Though it’s hard to imagine that a daydreaming driver would not be startled back to full alertness by the onset of dental drilling, nevertheless the concept appears sound: provide enough distraction and even pain will not be noticed.
Modern hypnotism owes its origins to an 18th century German physician Franz Anton Mesmer. Mesmer promoted something he called ‘animal magnetism’.
Electricity was then an exciting new discovery and doctors were intrigued, if mostly deluded, by its possible medical applications.
In 1778 Mesmer arrived in Paris where, to the fury of the medical establishment, his unorthodox treatments for illnesses using magnetism became highly fashionable -and profitable. Louis XVI eventually appointed a scientific commission to investigate Mesmer and his theories. The group included the renowned chemist Antoine Lavoisier, the physician Joseph- Ignace Guillotin, and Benjamin Franklin, the American polymath.
The group conducted a series of ingenious experiments aimed at determining whether Mesmer had discovered a new bodily fluid which could be influenced
by magnetism. The commission’s conclusion was that there was no evidence for ‘animal magnetism’ – and that any benefits Mesmer’s treatments produced were due to nothing more than the power of suggestion. But if Mesmer was a quack, and ‘animal magnetism’ nothing more than a fantasy, at least the power of suggestion was shown to be real. It took several more decades however before anyone again took a serious look at ‘mesmerism’.
In 1843 James Braid, a Scottish surgeon, published his groundbreaking book
‘Neurypnology’. Stripped of the theory of ‘animal magnetism’, Braid re-named Mesmerism ‘hypnotism’. Braid’s research pushed hypnotism into the world of science. But can a hypnotist make subjects surrender their freewill, resulting in them being dominated, controlled, even sexually exploited, and then order them to forget everything that has happened? No. Such is the power of showmanship that stage hypnotists are credited with far greater powers than they really have.
Subjects are never under the control of the hypnotist – though those who wrongly believe they are under control make good stage stooges. A hypnotic state is not something which can be imposed; instead it is something people achieve for themselves, the hypnotist simply serves as a facilitator.
Some individuals seem to have a greater ability (or susceptibility) than others to becoming hypnotised and thus benefit from it. Others however will gain no benefit.
Hypnotherapists report that hypnosis is most effective when a patient is highly motivated, and when the practitioner is well trained.
Many physical diseases may have a psychological component. Hypnosis has been used to treat ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis and Crohn’s disease. Skin diseases such as eczema, herpes, neurodermatitis, pruritus, psoriasis and perhaps most well known of all, warts, have all been reported to respond to the power of suggestion.
More easily explicable are cures for conditions more directly connected with the mind: anxiety and stress, asthma; bed-wetting; depression; sports and athletic performance; smoking cessation; obesity and weight control; sleep
disorders; high blood pressure; and sexual dysfunctions. As for pain relief, there is anecdotal evidence that up to two thirds of women have been found to be capable of using hypnosis as the sole analgesic during childbirth.
Incredibly hypnosis has been used as the only anaesthetic for surgery, including the removal of the gall bladder, amputations, caesarean section, and hysterectomies.
Hypnosis might be preferred where conventional anaesthesia is contraindicated because of allergies or hyper-sensitivities; or when other problems increase the risk of drug induced anaesthesia.
The British Society of Dental Hypnosis was founded in 1952 to promote the use of hypnotism. This became the Dental and Medical Society for the Study of Hypnosis in 1955. The Society for Medical and Dental Hypnosis was formed
in 1961. The Society changed its name in 1968 to the British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis (BSMDH).
Today’s British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis (BSCAH) was formed in 2007 by the merger of the BSMDH with the British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis.
Medical and dental practitioners use hypnosis in three main ways. One is encouraging the use of the patient’s imagination, since in a focused state of attention mental imagery can be unexpectedly powerful. A patient with a hard-toheal wound might for example be asked to imagine white blood cells
attacking infection.
Hypnosis can also be used to help understand underlying motivations or identify whether past experiences are associated with current psychological problems. Hypnosis can get past the conscious mind which sometimes blocks painful memories.
Another basic method of hypnosis is suggestion. Once a person is in a state of concentrated attention, then any idea or suggestion compatible with what the patient wants appear to be magnified – not least that they will not feel any pain whilst a tooth is being drilled or extracted.
Today hypnotism is widespread in dentistry. Patients can benefit in a variety of ways, not simply to counter pain, but also to treat dental phobia, bruxism, gag reflex, adjustment to new oral appliances, chronic jaw pain and to improve healing.