The purpose of this study is to find out whether Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is effective in the treatment of patients with dental phobia.

Dental phobia represents a clinical condition that affects 5-15% of the community and is characterized by severe anxiety of dental treatment which leads to avoidance of treatment and, as a consequence, severe dental as well as psychosocial problems.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) has been developed for the treatment of patients with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Its efficacy in PTSD patients has often been demonstrated in randomized controlled trials.

Recently it has been demonstrated that dental phobia is often induced by traumatic events during dental treatment and goes along with symptoms of PTSD in numerous patients.

A pilot study (de Jongh et al. 2002) gave hints on the efficacy of EMDR in four dental phobia patients with a history of traumatization during dental treatment.

This randomized wait-list control study aims to evaluate the efficacy of EMDR in a larger sample of dental phobia patients.

Inclusion Criteria:

• dental phobia according to the World Health Organization´s International Classification of Diseases, ICD-10 (F40.2)

Exclusion Criteria:

• schizophrenic disorder
• severe depression
• severe dissociative disorder
• organic brain disease
• anorexia nervosa (body mass index, BMI < 17)
• suicidality
• severe cardio-vascular disease
• ophthalmic disease
• pregnancy and lactation
• psychopharmacological treatment
• substance abuse