中英對照讀新聞／Acupuncture ’stops’ dental phobia 針灸終止看牙恐懼

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People terrified of visiting the dentist can overcome their fear with acupuncture, researchers have claimed. The findings, in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine, may offer some comfort to the one in five people thought to have dental phobia.

研究人員宣稱，害怕看牙醫的人可以藉著針灸克服恐懼。1/5的人有看牙恐懼，這項刊登在針灸醫學期刊的研究或許能為他們帶來一些安慰。

Five minutes of treatment with needles placed at two specific acupuncture points on the top of the head allowed all 20 patients to conquer their fear. Dr Palle Rosted, who led the research carried out by eight UK dentists, said the findings were extremely promising.

用針在頭頂兩個特殊穴位治療5分鐘，讓20名病患戰勝恐懼。這份研究由英國8名牙醫師進行，領導研究的羅斯提德博士說，研究結果很有前景。

"Although it’s a small number of patients that we’ve looked at, all of the patients benefited. These were patients who would have previously run screaming out of the door or would had to have been held down by a dental assistant to have their teeth checked."

「雖然我們觀察的只有一小部分病患，但所有病患都會受益。這些是過去會尖叫著狂奔出門，或是要被牙醫助理按住才能檢查牙齒的病患。」

All of the patients were in their 40s and had been suffering from dental phobia for between two and 30 years. Many had, unsuccessfully, tried other ways to conquer their fears, including hypnosis and relaxation techniques.

這些病患大概都在40歲左右，有2到30年怕看牙醫的歷史。許多人曾經嘗試其他方法來克服恐懼，包括催眠或是放鬆技巧，但都沒有成功。

新聞辭典

hold（sb）down：片語，讓某人維持某個姿勢不動。例句：He was struggling so much it took three police officers to hold him down.（他一直使勁掙扎，得要3名警員才制得住他。）

phobia：名詞，恐懼。例句：I’ve got a phobia about/of worms.（我對蟲有恐懼。）

overcome：動詞，戰勝、克服。例句：Eventually she managed to overcome her shyness in class.（她最終克服了在課堂上的膽怯。）

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