Hypnotherapy Information Exchange

Mr Mason was put in contact with dentist Dr Bhavin Bhatt, by mutual friend John Rid­lington, a qualified hypnotist.

With the offer of free treatment he agreed to the pro­cedure per­formed at the Smile and Wellbeing dental practice in Bishop’s Stortford.

‘Mind over matter’

Mr Rid­lington, 59, from Dunmow in Essex, said: “We all have the ability to control pain with our brains.

“Our brains control everything about our bodies and our sub­con­scious is the most powerful part — it controls our breathing and the blood pumping through our veins.

“Hypnosis taps into the sub­con­scious mind. It’s all about mind over matter.”

Mr Rid­lington got Mr Mason into a relaxed state of mind and taught him to visualise his favourite pastime — historic battle re-​​enactments — to distract his mind from the pain.

Whilst wielding an ima­ginary medieval sword, Mr Mason visu­alised a dial numbered one to 10 — one for no pain and 10 for excru­ciating pain.

As soon as he felt a twinge he mentally turned the dial back to one.

100% effective

He remained con­scious throughout the two-​​hour pro­cedure and felt nothing more than “a bit of a sting”.

Mr Mason, a former farmhand, said: “It was incredible. There is no worse pain than that inflicted by dentists but I didn’t feel any.

“The dentist had to dig away at the rotten roots that were right up into my jaw. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t have done under hypnosis now. It’s incredible.”

Dr Bhatt said: “The hypnosis was 100% effective.

“With Leslie we used hyp­no­therapy to remove a ser­iously infected tooth and some deeply embedded roots. Ordinarily this would involve surgery and such cases are usually referred to hospital.

“We’re now exploring the pos­sibility of offering tooth trans­plants under hypnosis.”

Mr Mason has pre­viously undergone hypnosis to quit his 40-​​a-​​day smoking habit.