Melody,

I've tried to figure out why people have dental phobias, and so far I have 2 ideas.

One is what you describe -- something traumatic happens, and then their body tells them (each new time) no, no, no, no, we're not going to do this!

In that case, it's exactly the same as the person who got violently ill from botulism at age 8, by eating a tamale, and at 78 still won't eat a tamale. His body won't let him -- we have an internal system that's rigged to avoid food poisoning.

I think it's rigged to avoid these other things, too. Like the person who falls down the stairs, breaks some bones and generally has a bad time of it. Thereafter, stairs are a big problem.

The other possibility is even more basic -- when a dentist is working inside of someone's mouth, he's invading that person. Perhaps there's a feeling of being violated? Although granted, the new techniques are gentler and more 'friendly' -- there is still an invasiveness about it. Seems like there would be a really strong, built-in aversion to that.