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Dr Mike Gow graduated from The University of Glasgow in 1999. He quickly discovered that his main passions were in helping dental patients overcome their fears and phobias and dental hypnosis. His interest in hypnosis began at an early age as his father was a medical doctor who used hypnosis when treating patients.
Following on from his basic training in hypnosis with The British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis which he undertook soon after graduating, Mike went on to become one of only a handful of people in the UK to gain a Masters in Hypnosis Applied to Dentistry at University College London. He advanced his skills in conscious sedation and the psychology of dental anxiety by gaining a Post Graduate Certificate in The Management of Dental Anxiety from The University of Edinburgh.
Mike has also trained in a wide variety of other disciplines such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and advanced local anaesthetic techniques to name a few. He has attended hundreds of courses and conferences on the topics of dental anxiety management and hypnosis.
He became the youngest ever President of The British Society of Medical & Dental Hypnosis at the age of 31 (2008-2010) and recently concluded a second presidency of the society (2014-2016).
Mike has appeared on several TV documentaries, demonstrating dental hypnosis for pain control. He is best known for his appearance on a BBC documentary when he hypnotized a patient who then had her two front teeth removed and two immediate placement implants with no Local Anaesthetics. The first tooth to be removed under hypnosis was in 1836, however this case, in 2007, was the first example of hypnosis being used for extraction followed by immediate dental implant placement with hypnosis in place of Local Anaesthetics.
More recently he appeared in a BBC 'Horizon' documentary removing the wisdom tooth of a hypnotized patient with no Local Anaesthetics. Mike uses dental hypnosis to help reduce dental anxiety, fear and phobia and also for other dental applications including: to manage bruxism, reduce gagging, improve appliance tolerance, control pain, and for smoking cessation.
Mike founded The International Society of Dental Anxiety Management (ISDAM) (www.isdam.com) as he felt there was a professional need for it and was always surprised that such an organisation did not already exist. The society helps dental teams better understand dental anxiety, fear and phobia and discusses the use of a variety of pharmacological, psychological, behavioural, technological and clinical techniques and approaches. The society publishes a newsletter, has an active & large Facebook group, and has a number of video resources that are free to members. There are also ISDAM seminars and workshops.
Early in his career, Mike worked in Australia for a year, with one locum position working for The Aboriginal Health Service and two in private practice, including a 3 month spell working and learning under Dr James Auld, a well-known and very experienced fellow 'hypnodontist'. The rest of Mike's career has been in his homeland of Scotland. He worked in National Health Service practices for several years before setting up in Private Practice in order that he could focus more on working with patients with dental phobia and dental hypnosis. He is now a partner at The Berkeley Clinic in Glasgow (www.berkeleyclinic.com) where as well as conscious sedation and hypnosis, he also uses technology with his anxious patients such as computer controlled injection techniques such as the Wand STA and Digiject. The Digiject is actually available to purchase via ISDAM (www.isdam.com)
Mike has a 'dental button', giving his patients ultimate control, and carries out a lot of 'same day' inlay and crown cases using digital techniques such as Cerec & Trios. Mike believes that being able to produce reliable and predictable results with digital dentistry in a single visit without the need for impressions has revolutionised dentistry for anxious patients.
Mike enjoys teaching and regularly trains dentists and their teams about rapport, language & communication as well as dental anxiety management and hypnosis.
He also organises meetings and conferences via his company MacScotland (Meetings And Conferences Scotland). In August 2015 his biggest project to date was organising and chairing The 23rd World Congress on Psychosomatic Medicine where there were nearly 500 delegates with around 60 workshops, lectures and seminars etc. Mike also recently organised a very successful workshop tour with Dr Howard Farran in London, England and Glasgow, Scotand. Mike is planning to come to the USA to give an 'Introduction to dental hypnosis : Jediodontics' workshop in Florida in July 2017. To keep up to date with news of this workshop and others, please see www.isdam.com and/or email macscotand@outlook.com
Mike is an advisor to the board and equity partner in www.DefactoDentists.com which is the UK's fastest growing dental listing website, adding considerable value to clinics across the UK. Mike enjoys being involved with DefactoDentists and says that they are going from strength to strength!
Mike was named 'Best young dentist in the UK' in 2008 and since then has been awarded many individual and practice awards including 'Dentist of the year', 'Outstanding individual', 'Best Practice', 'Practice of the Year' and 'Best treatment of anxious patients', to name a few!
Outside work Mike enjoys helping a variety of charities and has donated over 10,000 toothbrushes to people in need in the UK, South America, Africa and The Middle East in the last few years. He is an Executive member of The History of Dentistry Research Group (www.historyofdentistry.group) and is a Trades Master for The Incorporation of Barbers at the Trades House of Glasgow.
Mike likes to go to watch Glasgow Rangers Football Club, go fly fishing and loves to travel but says that most of his free time is occupied by his four young children!
Email Mike on: whatfearcom@hotmail.com
Follow Mike on twitter: @drmikegow and Facebook: Whatfear.com - Dr Mike Gow
Dr Mike Gow's Dental Anxiety Website: www.whatfear.com
Dr Mike Gow's Dental Practice Website: www.berkeleyclinic.com
Defacto Dentists: www.defactodentists.com
The International Society of Dental Anxiety Management website: www.isdam.com
Watch Dr. Gow's 2007 BBC Demonstration of Placing Implants Under Hypnosis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgu6vk3_ByE (All rights reserved to the BBC)
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