How Movies and Media May Be a Source of Dental Fear

Being afraid of the dentist is all too common. Researchers estimate that about 36% of the population suffers dental anxiety or fear in some form, with a further 12% having particularly extreme dental fears. For many people, the start of their fear was a bad experience they had at the dentist’s office in the past.

However, another possible cause is the way movies and media tend to portray the dental profession. You may not realize it, but the way fictional dentists are portrayed may have had a hand in shaping your perception of what real dentists are like.

Dentists in the Media

It’s unfortunately common for the media to portray dental professionals as people to be feared. One example is the 1976 film Marathon Man, which features a Nazi dentist who extracts teeth without anesthetic as a form of torture. Another is the 1986 film adaptation of Little Shop of Horrors, where Steven Martin plays a sadistic dentist who entered his profession specifically because he likes inflicting pain on people. While Marathon Man is a thriller and Little Shop of Horrors is a comedy, they both contribute to the idea of dentists being frightening individuals who don’t mind – and even relish – the idea of hurting their patients.

Perhaps the biggest example of a frightening dentist in movies is the 1996 film The Dentist. The titular dentist becomes angry after finding that his wife cheated on him and, as an outlet for his rage, uses his practice as a place to abuse and even murder patients. The film shows a dentist taking advantage of the trust his patients give him to harm them. Such an idea lies at the very heart of why dental fears are so common; patients feel like they are giving up control of themselves and putting themselves in the hands of their dentist.

All of these examples revolve around the idea that dentists are people who cause pain and are even outright malicious as they do so. And these are just a few examples; there are countless portrayals of dentists in cinema, on television, and in commercials that tend to cast the profession in a negative light. Even in comedic works, the humor is usually based on the patient having a stressful, frightening, or painful experience.

Dentists in Real Life

If you’ve let the media shape the way you look at the dental profession, it’s time to take a step back and see what the field is really like. Modern dentistry is nowhere near as scary as it’s often portrayed. Dentists, oral surgeons, and similar specialists are not looking to cause pain; in fact, they’re primarily interested in helping their patients stop or avoid oral pain.

Oral surgeons in particular are likely to be viewed in an even more negative light than dentists since they perform surgical tooth extractions and other procedures that are assumed to be painful. In reality, though, your oral surgeon will take every possible step to keep you comfortable during these treatments. They’ll numb your mouth with a local anesthetic so that you don’t feel any pain during your visit. They may also administer a type of dental sedation to keep you in a relaxed state. Some types of dental sedation are so strong, you may not even remember the procedure afterward, meaning it's much less likely you’ll have any negative memories of the experience to look back on.

In short, you shouldn’t let the way the dental profession is shown in the media scare you off from having important treatments like oral surgery done. You can count on your dentist or oral surgeon to do everything they can to make your visit a positive one.