{"id":148,"date":"2013-11-28T06:25:04","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T06:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/?p=148"},"modified":"2022-08-11T11:10:16","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T16:10:16","slug":"fear-of-pain-is-worse-than-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/2013\/11\/28\/fear-of-pain-is-worse-than-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear of Pain is Worse than Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dread means to anticipate with great apprehension or fear. All of us understand the fear aspect of dread, but an overlooked one is the &#8220;anticipation.&#8221; This aspect is as important to the definition of dread as the word fear. Dread almost always relates to future events\u2014the worsening of a situation or continuation of a situation that is unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p>It has been found that this feeling of dread is as bad or worse than actually confronting or experiencing the dreaded event. This is especially true when it comes to fear of pain. The psychological stress and distraction it places on the mind causes greater distress than actually feeling pain.<\/p>\n<h2>Overcoming Fear by Confronting It<\/h2>\n<p>The fear of pain is often the reason people choose to avoid going to the dentist. It&#8217;s also the reason why others choose to confront the pain head on and as quickly as possible. These people know\u2014consciously or unconsciously\u2014that the fear is worse than the pain.<\/p>\n<p>The <a title=\"Imperial College London\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imperial.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Imperial College London<\/a> conducted a study into the nature of fear and pain. The head researcher\u00a0Dr. Giles Story subjected\u00a035 participants to a test. He asked them to choose between electric shocks of different intensities occurring at different times.<\/p>\n<p>A few of the participants elected to avoid the pain by delaying the more intense shocks until the end. The majority\u201471 per cent of tests\u2014chose to receive the pain earlier, even though that meant a more intensely painful stimulus. Researchers found similar results when they asked participants to choose between dental appointments of varying levels of pain.<\/p>\n<h2>A Change in Psychology<\/h2>\n<p>Most of us, if not all, have experienced this &#8220;let&#8217;s get it over with&#8221; approach to pain. This kind of mentality seems to go against previously established psychology. For instance, Dr. Story says:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When people are offered a reward, they prefer to have it as soon as possible, which could be interpreted to mean that we rate \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 future experiences as less important when we&#8217;re making decisions. This reasoning would suggest that you would put off \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 unpleasant things to the future as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The latter choice was followed by a minority in all parts of the study. The researchers also ran some other tests. They utilized <a title=\"Human Brain Imaging\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jneurosci.org\/content\/jneuro\/23\/10\/3959.full.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">human brain imaging<\/a>\u00a0to study dread&#8217;s impact on cognition. The images supported the existence of dread within the brain, but more specific details could not be derived.<\/p>\n<p>Another interesting aspect of responses to pain involves personality.\u00a0Prior research has shown that\u00a0introverts report more pain than extroverts. That could serve as a good reason to become more outgoing and confident. Maybe one could become so extroverted that they&#8217;d no longer feel pain.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/dr.potts_.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-68\" src=\"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/dr.potts_-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"dr.potts\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Dr. Potts is a gentle, caring dentist who uses the most advanced materials and procedures available. He practices comfortable, health-centered dentistry, with a strong emphasis on getting to know each patient. In addition to his technical proficiency, Dr. Potts is a careful listener. He \u00a0makes sure to understand what you want and will explain beforehand what treatment is best for your individual needs, along with all options available to you.\u00a0Check out our\u00a0<a title=\"Dr. Potts Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrDavidPotts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0<a title=\"Lake County Dental Care\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LakeCountyDentalCare\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook page<\/a>, and\u00a0<a title=\"Libertyville Dentist\" href=\"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dread means to anticipate with great apprehension or fear. All of us understand the fear aspect of dread, but an overlooked one is the &#8220;anticipation.&#8221; This aspect is as important to the definition of dread as the word fear. Dread almost always relates to future events\u2014the worsening of a situation or continuation of a situation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[43,446,92,10,102,94,100,18,16,17,101,91],"class_list":{"0":"post-148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-dentistry","7":"tag-dental-health","8":"tag-dentistry","9":"tag-dentophobia","10":"tag-dr-potts","11":"tag-dread","12":"tag-fear","13":"tag-fear-of-pain","14":"tag-lake-county-dental","15":"tag-libertyville","16":"tag-libertyville-dentist","17":"tag-pain","18":"tag-phobia","19":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fear of Pain is Worse than Pain - Plotting with Dr. Potts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/2013\/11\/28\/fear-of-pain-is-worse-than-pain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fear of Pain is Worse than Pain - Plotting with Dr. Potts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dread means to anticipate with great apprehension or fear. All of us understand the fear aspect of dread, but an overlooked one is the &#8220;anticipation.&#8221; This aspect is as important to the definition of dread as the word fear. Dread almost always relates to future events\u2014the worsening of a situation or continuation of a situation [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/2013\/11\/28\/fear-of-pain-is-worse-than-pain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Plotting with Dr. Potts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-28T06:25:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-11T16:10:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/dr.potts_-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lake County Dental Care\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lake County Dental Care\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fear of Pain is Worse than Pain - Plotting with Dr. Potts","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/2013\/11\/28\/fear-of-pain-is-worse-than-pain\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fear of Pain is Worse than Pain - Plotting with Dr. Potts","og_description":"Dread means to anticipate with great apprehension or fear. 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Dread almost always relates to future events\u2014the worsening of a situation or continuation of a situation [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/2013\/11\/28\/fear-of-pain-is-worse-than-pain\/","og_site_name":"Plotting with Dr. Potts","article_published_time":"2013-11-28T06:25:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-11T16:10:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/dr.potts_-150x150.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Lake County Dental Care","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lake County Dental Care","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/2013\/11\/28\/fear-of-pain-is-worse-than-pain\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/2013\/11\/28\/fear-of-pain-is-worse-than-pain\/"},"author":{"name":"Lake County Dental Care","@id":"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/#\/schema\/person\/0ecc43fd67ddfab999695d7fff11b5b5"},"headline":"Fear of Pain is Worse than Pain","datePublished":"2013-11-28T06:25:04+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-11T16:10:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/2013\/11\/28\/fear-of-pain-is-worse-than-pain\/"},"wordCount":533,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/2013\/11\/28\/fear-of-pain-is-worse-than-pain\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/dr.potts_-150x150.jpg","keywords":["dental health","Dentistry","dentophobia","Dr. Potts","dread","fear","fear of pain","lake county dental","libertyville","libertyville dentist","pain","phobia"],"articleSection":["Dentistry"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/2013\/11\/28\/fear-of-pain-is-worse-than-pain\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/2013\/11\/28\/fear-of-pain-is-worse-than-pain\/","url":"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/2013\/11\/28\/fear-of-pain-is-worse-than-pain\/","name":"Fear of Pain is Worse than Pain - 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