Scared of dentist? Play SL and forget about pain

I stumbled upon this amazing news from the field of odontology, or dental science. Immersion in virtual worlds, in this case Second Life, can reduce pain to help patients with needle phobia, or for other reasons to avoid or limit traditional pain killer injections.

Virtual worlds hold promise to reduce real world pain at the dentist
Case Western Reserve University dental graduate student experiments with Second Life

According to a thesis project at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine. Student Elena Furman, specializing in periodontics at the dental school, looked at alternative distraction therapies to reduce pain in her patients during the intensive cleaning process of scaling and root planing to rid gums and teeth of bacteria and plaque.".


http://blog.case.edu/case-news/2008/10/07/virtualdentistry

I always had this irrational fear of neddles, as well as of dentists. I'm less hysterical about this, as I used to be. Probably because I had a gifted dentist who helped me overcome my phobia, by mild hypnosis and soft music by choice in the ear phones. I'm almost sure, however that I would also have relaxed more when being introduced to a nice walk in a safe and beautiful SL garden environment.