Fear of the dentist can be contagious

• May 8, 2024

An investigation of scientists from the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid , Spain, has shown that the emotional transmission of fear going to the dental office can be transmitted from parents to children; In particular, the influence of the father, unlike the mother, is a factor in anxiety .

According to the doctor América Lara Sacido , one of the authors of the study, parents have a key role in the transmission of fear to the dentist from mothers to children by acting as a mediating variable.

"Children seem to fundamentally attend to the emotional reactions of their parents to decide if dental events are potentially stressful," says Lara Sacido. So the higher the level of anxiety or fear dental in some member of the family, more will suffer the rest.

In this sense, the transmission of fear from the mother to the child could be influenced, either to increase or reduce the anxiety , by the reaction that the father shows at the dentist.

For this reason, the researchers emphasize two particularities: two stand out: the need to involve both parents and mothers (especially the former) in prevention campaigns dental fear and try to get parents to attend the consultation without expressing concern or any other negative emotion .

"That the parents come calm is as interesting as directly procure the child to relax," explains the author. "By the way of contagion positive emotional in the family it could be possible to induce in the child the adequate state that facilitates the dental attention ".

In this way, the contagion positive emotional in the family it could lead to induce a child, the right state that facilitates present and future dental care.