By sethdeborah@HypnotherapyForHealth.com, www.HypnotherapyForHealth.com

Deborah F. is a 50 year old woman who will be going through dental implant surgery with a bone graft. The expected surgery is 90 minutes long. Deborah decided to use hypnosis combined with local anesthesia instead of using IV sedation. She is fearful about being out of control with IV sedation as well as the added monetary cost.

She came to my office two weeks before the procedure to train for her hypnosis conscious sedation. She was first instructed about how we can train ourselves to get so involved in taking ourselves to a safe place- real or imagined- that we actually feel as if it is real. Almost like being dissociated from the surgery itself. She decided to use the dentists surgery light as if it was the sun and she would be on a beach in Hawaii. She was instructed to use all of her senses. See what she would see, hear what she would hear, feel what she would feel, smell what she would smell and even taste what she would taste. We practiced this in the office as well as instructing her about how to get into self-hypnosis at home.

She practiced this at home for two weeks prior to the procedure by sitting in front of a bright light. She was instructed that upon sitting in the dental chair, the moment the dentist would shine the light on her, instantly, she would be transported to Hawaii. She even took an iPod with Hawaii music to the dental surgery. She recalls being absolutely involved in the Hawaii scene and the music that she did not even realize the surgery was taking a long time.

The surgery had some complications so that it lasted 2 1/2 hours instead of 90 minutes. The local anesthesia started to wear off towards the end of the procedure so Deborah really had to focus on the Hawaii scene a little bit more. She was aware of the pressure of the suturing but was not feeling any real pain. She reported it was the weirdest thing. The dentist reported that Deborah was more sedated than his sedated patients. He was very impressed.

By Stephen McAuley, Regional Trainer in HypnoDontics (Scotland)

contact@okayagain.com Tel: 0044 7909 914 896

Patient Background: The patient, a man in his 40s, had suffered from severe dental anxiety since childhood due to negative experiences with his childhood dentist in Poland. Despite being a mechanic and used to physical discomforts, he avoided dental treatment until the pain became unbearable, which then required him to undergo sedation to manage his anxiety.

Problem: Recently, the cost of sedation had increased significantly, which prompted the patient to look for an alternative solution to manage his dental anxiety.

Solution: The patient discovered Stephen McAuley, a hypnotherapist specializing in hypnodontics. After just two short sessions with Stephen, the patient’s anxiety was completely overturned, and he was able to attend his dental appointments alone and effortlessly undergo dental work.

Outcome: The patient was amazed at how quickly and effectively hypnodontics helped him overcome his dental anxiety. He was able to save time and money and no longer had to put off his dental appointments until the pain became unbearable. He went on to work with Stephen on other issues and regularly shares his story with others who may benefit from hypnodontics.

Conclusion: This case study highlights the effectiveness of hypnodontics in helping patients overcome dental anxiety. It demonstrates that even patients with severe anxiety can benefit from this non-invasive, cost-effective, and safe approach to dental treatment. Hypnodontics is a valuable tool for dentists and healthcare providers looking to help patients overcome their fears and improve their overall oral health.

Study by researcher Piotr Mydel at the University of Bergen, Norway.

There are a lot of hard things in the world: It’s difficult to raise our families, make it through university, and pay our bills. Brushing your teeth, however, is not one of these things — it’s a no-brainer.

Although the facial triangle of death isn’t going to kill many people, bacteria in its way can still result in some very real consequences according to a  study published in the journal Science Advances. There are indications of a relationship between gum disease and one’s likelihood to develop Alzheimer’s.

The more likely you are to lazily “forget” to brush your teeth today, the more you are likely to forget later, Mydel found…. So, “Brush two times a day to maximize your dental hygiene”.

Gum disease is caused by the buildup of plaque on teeth, which occurs most often when we do not brush or floss regularly. This plaque contains bacteria that can move to the brain, where it produces a protein that can destroy nerve cells, the study found.

The destruction of nerve cells in the brain leads to memory loss and ultimately Alzheimer’s. It is not the only cause, Mydel said, but the bacteria can raise one’s risk of developing the degenerative disease and can make it worse.

Around 50% of the population has the gum disease-causing bacteria, but only 10% will experience the worst of its effects, including serious gum disease, loss of teeth and the heightened risk of Alzheimer’s.

While in the long term, lazily forgoing brushing can have detrimental consequences, as shown by Mydel’s research, it’s also, frankly, gross in the short term.

Beryl Comar has worked successfully with clients’ who have presented with necrotizing gums, and those living with Dementia (early stages) using NLP, EFT and hypnotherapy.

By Beryl Comar – www.berylcomar.com, email: berylcomar@gmail.com

Mary, 45 years, married, was overcome with anxiety and grinding her teeth while she slept. Her husband, who worked on oil rigs month on, month off) told her that it drove him crazy and he couldn’t sleep well because of the activity. We met on zoom and she requested a double session saying that she was nervous and worried may not be easily hypnotizable.

Using parts therapy I was able to talk to the part of her subconscious mind that was generating the anxiety. (Parts are not our behaviours, they have our good intention when they start, and continue until satisfied that new behaviours will work for us). The parts job was “to alert her to impending danger”. When I asked what was making her so anxious the part told me that it was her fear of being alone and also of the unknown.

I then did some reframing with the part – Gerry Kein called “the Philly lawyer act”. I explained that her being alone was not really pending danger, but the result of her husband not being there any longer. Her fear of the unknown was also not pending danger, but a result of a temporary event in the past that she had survived. After some negotiation, followed by a NLP Fast Phobia Cure on the event she told me about, all parts finally agreed to quit the grinding and we agreed she could sleep all night until the time she chose to wake up bright and bouncy.

The client reported in after a month, free of grinding and sleeps really well these days! No surprises then! All done in a one double session. Double sessions save time and expenses. Great value for money.

By Beryl Comar – www.berylcomar.com, email: berylcomar@gmail.com

My first “dental client”, over 30 years ago, was a woman who couldn’t insert her new false teeth (Known as oral prosthetics) because of gagging issues. She had had all her teeth removed so now she had a “gummy”appearance and spoke strangely. As a result she became claustrophic, depressed, anti-social – and her marriage was suffering. Hypnosis in two sessions and she was a new woman, happy again. We did a third session to totally clear up some childhood abuse that had come up during earlier sessions. Consequently her dentist was delighted, he talked about me, sent clients and told other dentists about my services. I did a few “learning lunches” for different clinics telling the staff about how I could help with bruxim, gagging, TMJ issues, excessive saliva and bleeding, smoking, eating disorders, oral hygiene and more.

There was only one book on HypnoDontics published in 1958, clearly out of date! I had trained in Dave Elman techniques with the renowned Gerald Kein, so I wrote a book for the modern hypnotist. I set up HypnoDonticsWorld.com to train hypnotherapists in this profitable niche. It’s proving very successful as I have at least three enquiries per week from dentists as far as Brazil and Hong Kong, and hypnotists from USA, S.Africa to Australia wanting referrals from the dentists in their area. Yes, just three local dentists and their staff referring to you and you may never need to advertise again.

HypnoDontics is more than fear of dentists and needles – oral health is proving to be key to our overall health. You could be eating the healthiest diet in the world, but if you are swallowing poison from unhealthy oral bacteria. The Covid-19 test is done orally, how can you do that with a gagging reflex? And it’s not true that you need to go into the dental surgery with your client.

History: ‘John’ had graduated college and started a new job with a good insurance package and dental plan. He knew his teeth were in bad shape because he had not been to the dentist for ten years due to his fear of dentists and dental procedures. As an ambitious young man wanting promotion, he knew that the state of his teeth was against him furthering his career.

At age eight a dentist had promised he wouldn’t hurt him and asked the “nurse” to hold him down because he was wriggling. He said there was pain but he couldn’t remember it exactly and he had kicked the dentist in the stomach although now as an adult he realized it may have been “lower down”.

At age thirteen he was taken to the dentist but couldn’t relax and wouldn’t let the dentist use “gas” because “I don’t trust dentists, I want to know what they are doing”. However, he wanted to take advantage of the dental plan and to look good as an executive and find a girlfriend who didn’t nag about his teeth.

Session PreTalk: I asked a few questions about family, job, hobbies and listened to his story (above). Then asked him to agree that he was much smaller, didn’t know what he knows now, and in retrospect nothing happened. As a rugby player he was able to take some discomfort when he wanted an outcome ie a goal.

He had seen many hypnosis stage shows and asked a lot of questions about hypnosis, which I answered thoroughly. He agreed to go into hypnosis “because nothing else has worked for me”. I told him he would be in control and we set up ideo-motor responses ie index finger for “yes”, thumb for “no” and wiggling all fingers for “I don’t know”. He felt very relaxed about that!

Induction: I used an Elman Rapid Induction as I felt this would give him more of a feeling of being in control. I deepened by taking him on a journey inside his own brain, through all the layers of conscious and subconscious, wandering through all the parts and memories, tastes, smells and touches, thoughts and feelings etc. stored there in the organic computer. I asked him to be in wonderment and what a wonderful job it does protecting him looking after him as the central processing unit. The brain will never knowingly destroy us, for in destroying us it destroys itself. Everything there is there to protect us (ideo-motor responses all through were agreeing). I asked the subconscious mind if it would be willing to update the information stored there and then choose to use that information in any way it decides to protect ‘John’, response was “yes”.

Choosing a Technique: I used The Fast Phobia/Trauma Relief Technique. This technique neutralizes the powerful, negative feelings of phobias and traumatic events and can be a first level intervention with clients who “fear” regression. Most people learned to be phobic in a single situation that was actually dangerous, or seemed dangerous.  The fact that individuals can do what psychologists call “one-trial learning” is proof that a person’s brain can learn quite rapidly.  That ability to learn rapidly makes it easy for you to learn a new way to respond to any phobia or trauma. The part of you that has been protecting you all these years by making you phobic is an important and valuable part.  We want to preserve its ability to protect you in dangerous situations.  The purpose of this technique is to refine and improve your brain’s ability to protect you by updating its information.

“I want you to imagine walking into a movie theater, it is a new movie theater, you can smell the new paint mixed with the smell of popcorn, you are alone and you feel very safe here. Find a seat in the middle of the movie theater, an ergonomically designed chair that molds to your body. Move around and feel very comfortable. As you take a warm comfortable breathe now. You’re sitting in the middle and you look up see a black and white snapshot of yourself on the screen. A big smile on your face.

Now, float out of your body and up into the projection booth.  See yourself sitting in the movie theater seat, and also the black and white photo on the screen so far away.  You may even wish to imagine Plexiglas over the booth’s opening, protecting you. There are many dials and switches here, they are all labeled and you know how to use them. The on and off switches, the pause and volume controls, zoom in and zoom out.

Now, I will soon ask you to watch and listen, protected in the projection booth, as you see a black and white movie of a younger you going through that time you experienced that trauma.  Watch the whole event – starting before the beginning when everything was ok.  Observe until you are beyond the end of it, when everything was OK again. And let me know by raising your yes finger when it is all finished.

If you are not fully detached, make the theater screen smaller and farther away, make the picture grainier, stop and start the film so that when you’re done viewing it, you’re completely detached. 

When the yes finger raises I asked John to open his eyes and there on the screen right in front of him is the freeze frame picture of himself with a big grin on his face.

Take a deep breath and SLEEP. (finger snap and catch head) Now here you are in the projector room, leave the projection booth and slip back into the present you in the theater seat feeling good.  Now step into the freeze photo of the younger you, who is feeling OK again, at the movie’s end.  (This is double dissociation.)