In order to design a healing dental environment, the first thing that should be known is the common causes of dental fear (Dental Fear Central 2004-2007).
- Bad experiences: studies suggest that about 80 -85% of dental fear is caused by bad or horrific dental experience.
- A history of abuse: a person who has a history of bullying or having physical or emotional abuse, especially in childhood, may contribute to developing dental fear, especially in combination with bad experiences with dentists.
- Uncaring dentist: a dentist who is perceived as cold and controlling. This has a huge psychological impact on patients.
- Humiliation: insensitive remarks and the intense feelings of humiliation they provoke are one of the main factors, which can cause or contribute to a dental fear.
- Vicarious learning: affects of other people’s experience. If a parent or other caregiver is scared of dentists, children may pick up on this and learn to be scared as well, even in the absence of bad experiences. Also, hearing other people's horror stories about visits to the dentist can have a similar effect.
- Preparedness: people who quickly learned to avoid the needle in order to escape hurt, but they still face the dental needle when treated.
- Post-traumatic stress: Research suggests that people who have had horrific dental experiences (unsurprisingly) suffer from symptoms typically reported by people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is characterized by intrusive thoughts of the bad experience and nightmares about dentists or dental situations.
Many healthy professionals give a wide range of ways to solve dental phobia. Some ways are used in present treatment. The solutions mostly be used are hanging images on the walls and drawing murals on ceiling and walls. In many surgeries, dentists like using scenic photographs or pictures, especially, a beach, a sea, a lake or a forest. These images do their work to some extent. From first hand experience in dental practices, when people lie on dental chairs, sometimes they can not see the images because their views are always filled with dentists’ hands or dental equipments. Hanging mobiles like birds or fish is another common practice. But it also does not work for the same reason as the images mentioned above. If the images or decorations are too small to absorb patients’ attention, they will not work. As a result these kinds of images are suitable in the waiting room or corridor.
Watching video eyeglasses and installing DVD players are the other two modern techniques, patients often find video glasses novel, but many feel claustrophobic or cut off from their surroundings and to patients with serious dental fear or those suffering from pain finds it difficult to concentrate on the video. Doctors also sometimes feel cut off from the patient since they cannot see the patient’s eyes or expressions (Maklin 2002, p.448).
After interviewing and observing dental practices, hospitals and some similar institutions, it obviously shows that “bright”, “strong”, “vivid”, ”warm”, are words that people might use to describe their impression of the visual arts and designs they like. Some of the words may be chosen with the intention of conveying the visual attributes of the appearance, the hue, the lightness and the intensity of the color, and the other words chosen are an attempt to convey an emotional response that the observer associates with the visual arts’ appearance. In other words, people pay more attention to active, welcoming and stimulating things.
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