Good day,
Today we had the first snow of the year. Beautiful pure white snow is covering the ground. Happy first snow.
It is very normal to be anxious before visiting your dentist. Many people avoid going to the dentist because of fear or anxiety. Though it is inevitable as teeth are the only part of the body that don't heal themselves. So the sooner you see your dentist, the less destruction of the tooth, easier to get it fixed, less painful and cheaper it is.
These are the common reasons for being anxious to see the dentist:
1- Previous experiences: I must say that dentistry has come a long way and we have more ways to manage pain than before. And there are tons of dentists everywhere, if you are not happy with one, find another one. Until you have a dentist, you trust and you feel comfortable with.
2- Fear of pain: Mouth is very intimate part of the body, we nourish ourselves through our mouths. We communicate through our mouths and we express our feelings through our mouths. We can not see what a dentist is doing in our mouth. In our practice, I explain everything to the patient before doing it if that is what the patient wants. Some patients do not want to know. That is why we have a question about anxiety in our health questionnaire. And we spend time to know our patients before starting any work.
We use topical anesthetic ( gel) before injection to numb the area. It helps with reducing the pain.
We diagnose the cavity when it is very small and fix it before it becomes big and painful to fix.
We use laughing gas ( nitrous oxide) to reduce the pain and anxiety in our patients.
3- Fear of anesthetic not working: I make sure the patient is numb before fixing the tooth. It has never happened in my practice that I could not numb a patient.
4- Anxious about the noises of the instruments: We ask the patient to bring her/his cellphone and headphone to listen to what they like. Sometimes we can hear it and we even enjoy listening to it ourselves as well. This will distract the patient and help with anxiety as well.
Overall, we communicate with the patient before hand and we address whatever it is that is making them anxious or fearful.
We are here for you. Give us a call.
Dr. Khoshand
