MIKE: 12 months ago I needed to go and see a dentist, because I had tooth ache-- severe tooth ache. And I finally plucked up the courage to go and visit the dental surgery. I stood outside, could feel my heart pumping in my chest. A little bit like a panic attack, I suppose.
MAN: Right.
MIKE: Just couldn't walk over the threshold.
MAN: Mike has a dental phobia. To overcome his phobia, we're going to rewire his brain using a process called gradual exposure. It's a specialized treatment, and Tim Newton at Guy's Hospital in London is one of the world's leading experts.
TIM NEWTON: So what happens when you think about going to the dentist? What's going through your mind.
MIKE: Teeth being extracted, blood, pain.
TIM NEWTON: And instantly thinking it's going to be very, very unpleasant?
MIKE: Yeah.
TIM NEWTON: And so, one of the things, which we'll want to do, is sort of test the reality of that. And look to see whether that is what will really happen, so that we can change the way you think about the dentist situation. We're going to start today a sort of new approach, which we're developing here, which is using video. The idea is that we show you this and we ask you to practice relaxing yourself, calming yourself. Keep doing that until you can watch that bit of video without being too anxious. And then we'll start doing it in real life, and gradually, gradually build up until we've reached your goal, which is to be able to walk into surgery, sit in the chair, and have some treatment.
MAN: Under Professor Newton's instructions, Mike's been working hard on a number of techniques. As well as watching videos, he's written about his fears, he's listened to the sound of dental drills, handled dentist instruments, and developed a series of flashcards to highlight his key fears and ways to cope with them.
MIKE: To begin with, I must confess, I couldn't really see the point in some of this. But bit by bit, the building blocks have come together, and it's a bit like a snowball rolling downhill. The new experiences, and the desensitization, and the logic behind some of the way I feel and how I feel it has come together, it's actually been very, very good. And a lot of the historic experiences that were very poor have now been replaced by new ones, and the demons don't seem to be there.