Is there a new miracle drug on the horizon to treat patients suffering from dental phobia? Researchers at the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (ICTSI) and West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute have been rewarded $50,000 to help find out. The Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (ICTSI) and West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute (WVCTSI) have been rewarded $50,000 this month in joint partnership pilot funding to support a cross-institutional research project focused on developing treatment for dental anxiety. These funds will ground the design of a clinical trial focused on using a combination of psychologically based exposure therapy and a skin patch used to deliver the medication D-Cycloserine to reduce or eliminate the fear experienced by some patients when visiting the dentist. "Each institution brings its own strengths. At West Virginia University, we have strengths in behavioral dentistry to deal with the problem of dental phobia and avoidance. Indiana brings strengths in genomics and prior studies with D-Cycloserine in the treatment of social phobia," Daniel W. McNeil, PhD, co-principal investigator, stated in a WVCTSE press release. Research will include patients who have avoided dental care for a period of more than two years, allowing them to gradually experience dental care again—first through exposure to films of dental treatment and then with actual dental care. Patients will be prescribed D-Cycloserine during this time to help extinguish prior learned fear behavior. D-Cycloserine, an antibiotic commonly used to treat tuberculosis, has previously been used in treatments for height phobia, social phobia and spider phobia. If researchers can prove that it aids in reducing dental phobia, they can begin helping to alleviate the major public health problem of dental care avoidance due to fear. The ultimate goal of the project, titled “Enhancing Exposure for Dental Phobia using D-Cycloserine,” is to provide dentists with knowledge about using exposure along with prescription medication to help their patients become accustomed to receiving typical and necessary dental care. The new joint pilot funding program supports research addressing health and health care issues at the Indiana CTSI and West Virginia CTSI, two of the 60 centers established by the Clinical and Translational Science Award of the National Institutes of Health to expedite research development into new treatments and therapies.
