Dentists are hoping to cure patients, who suffer from a condition which makes them avoid treatment, by using acupuncture.

Dental surgeons will use the alternative therapy to treat people who suffer from an exaggerated gagging reaction each time they undergo treatment.

It means that hundreds of patients, who normally avoid the dentists chair, can be treated in the normal way, but without discomfort or embarrassment.

The move comes after research showed that patients, who normally had to be sedated to prevent them gagging, were given fillings and had teeth extracted after acupuncture was carried out.

Kieran Fallon, a Glasgow dentist and spokesman for the British Dental Association, said the acupuncture would target a specific point of the ear which prevents gagging.

She said: "This gagging reflex often leads to sufferers simply staying away from the dentist because they cannot bear to receive treatment.

"In the past other remedies have been tried such as hypnosis or trying to desensitise them by putting a toothbrush or other item further and further back in their mouth.

"But unlike acupunture, these treatments assume the problem is largely psychological and not physical.

"Acupuncture is used in dentistry but this is the first time has been used to cure the gagging reflex."

Research published in the British Dental Journal revealed that acupuncture had a 100 per cent success rate when tested on a group of 10 volunteers.

Acupucnture needles were inserted into an anti-gagging point in each of the patients' ears and manipulated before dental work began.

The volunteers, who had previously either avoided dental treatment or had to be sedated, were given fillings and tooth extractions and on all occasions were fit to leave the surgey and travel home unaccompanied.

Practitioners claim the treatment works because different parts of the ear represent different parts of the body.

The nerves which control swallowing and gagging corresponds with the area of the ear containing the anti-gagging point.

　　From Healthy.net