There you are. . .the dentist chair.  You've known you had the appointment for the last six months and every second of it has been agony.  This is just the cleaning.  Just wait till he tells you that there will be a FILLING!

The stress at the dentist office doesn't have to be that bad.  A new artical just came out written by Steven Reinberg at HealthDay that suggest Acupuncture might be a good and safe way to relieve anxiety caused by the dentist office.

The scientific name for the fear of the dentist is odontophobia and studies suggest that one in 20 people suffer from the condition but many more, up to a third of all people say they suffer some kind of anxiety before they go to the dentist. 

Some dentists prescribe medication like tranquilizers or anxitety drugs to help patients get through the rough time at the office, but many people don't want to take the narcotic-like drugs or be sedated in the chair which could be time-consuming or have bad side effects.

Some dentists are now offering in-office acupuncture treaments as an extra tool to help patients get over the anxiety and destraction that being in the chair can cause.

The March 29th issue of Acupunture in Medicine sites a test of 20 patients who have suffered from odontophobia for over 20 years.  Their anxiety level was considered moderate to severe.

Their anxiety was checked before and after five minutes of acupunture and rated, using a proven anxiety scale.  Research found their anxiety dropped by over half after the treatment.  BEFORE the treatment, only six patients could withstand any treatment at all.

70 percent of the study patients had an effect of the treatment.  That's pretty powerful stuff.

Acupunture helps release endorphins, which act not only as painkillers, but as sedatives.  Researches say these opiate-like hormones, manufactured in the body, contribute to natural feelings of well-being and mudulate anxiety.