Acupuncture treatment could help people who are terrified of the dentist cure their dental phobia, according to new research.
A study of 20 highly nervous dental patients found that just five minutes of acupuncture in the top of the head reduces anxiety levels by more than half.
The patients consisted of sixteen men and four women with an average age of 40. Each had suffered from fear of the dentist for between two and 30 years, with only some able to sit through treatment with the aid of general anaesthetic or sedatives.
Dentists, who are all members of the British Dental Acupuncture Society, stuck acupuncture needles into two strategic spots on the head of each patient, which are known to aid relaxation.
Average anxiety levels fell from a score of 26.5, recorded five minutes before the treatment using the Back Anxiety Inventory (BAI), to 11.5. As a result, all 20 people were able to conquer their fear and undergo their planned treatment .
The authors of the study, which was published in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine, said that around 5 per cent of patients in the US and Europe have severe dental anxiety called odontiatophobia and 20 to 30 per cent report moderate anxiety .
The authors, from Sheffield and Denmark, concluded that acupuncture "prior to dental treatment has a beneficial effect on the level of anxiety in patients with dental anxiety and may offer a simple and inexpensive method of treatment ."
However, they added that more research needed to be carried out on a larger scale.
Mike Cummings, medical director to the British Medical Acupuncture Society, said acupuncture was a good way to beat anxiety and that there were a couple of hundred dentists in the UK who had been trained to provide this type of therapy .
