Patients scared of sitting in the dentist's chair are being hypnotised to relax them before treatment.

Chris Gull, both a dentist and a hypnotist, believes it is the perfect way to help people overcome their fear of drills, injections and fillings.

He is so convinced the technique works he offers a money-back guarantee on the service he provides at his practice in Ship Street, Brighton.

Mr Gull, 50, said: "If people are dental phobic we can cure them with hypnotherapy.

"It is usually something specific they are scared of, such as needles or the sight of blood. We try to get them over it so they can have treatment.

"It only takes one experience to condition a person to be nervous. But it can take masses of good experiences to get over it."

Mr Gull sometimes has to talk to patients on the phone or via email before he can treat them because the phobia can prevent people from even setting foot in a surgery.

Once he persuades them inside they are free to have a cup of tea and wander around.

The surgery is open-plan, with wooden floors, a large lounge area with sofas and mineral water on the tables, and is decorated with art and sculptures by local artists which are for sale.

If hypnotherapy is needed, Mr Gull and the patient sit in a quiet room and Mr Gull tells them to close their eyes.

He talks them into a state of relaxation, then hypnosis, telling them to imagine they are back somewhere in the past where they felt comfortable.

Mr Gull said: "It is just being in a state of relaxation so the unconscious can be addressed."

One session is usually enough to cure a fear of the dentist.

Mr Gull also hypnotises people in his practice to help them give up smoking or get over other phobias such as lifts or ladders.

A course of four sessions costs £290 and if patients are not satisfied they get their money back.

Mr Gull said: "Most people who are scared of the dentist were born between the end of the Second World War and the mid-Seventies.

"They have memories of the school dentist and being given treatments such as gas, which has made them nervous of sitting in the dentist's chair.

"These days there is no reason for anyone to have to go through pain."

Mr Gull opened the business in Ship Street five months ago after 21 years at a semi-detached ex-council house in Moulsecoomb.

This month his practice was named UK Dental Practice of the Year by the journal Independent Dentistry.