I know it’s called “dentaphobia” but first of all, that should translate as “fear of teeth”. I’m not afraid of teeth, my own or anyone else’s.

And come to that, I’m not actually afraid of dentists. Most dentists that I’ve known have been perfectly fine people. Upon meeting a dentist I don’t get all scared and run off or anything. They’re not generally scary.

What I’m actually afraid of is having someone poke around my mouth with sharp metal objects. Personally, I think this is an entirely reasonable fear. It’s not irrational to be afraid of something like that. I’d be afraid of, say, torturers, too, if they had sharp pointy objects with which they were going to poke around in my mouth.

So what we need is a word that means “fear of people poking sharp metallic objects in your mouth” because the current word just doesn’t fit the bill…

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