Do Not Let Your Fear of Dentists Keep You From Getting the Treatment You Need
As professionals we do not take your fear of dentists personally. We understand that almost all of you have had a bad experience at least once in your life. This is not because dentists are mean people who want to hurt you. Rather, it is because the mouth is one of the most sensitive parts of the body, and some general dentistry practices involve procedures that are uncomfortable and sometimes painful. Most people who fear dentists develop these fears in childhood after going once or twice for fillings and cleaning and reacting as all children do to pain—with avoidance.
Because we work with so many children, and because we remember being children ourselves, we have developed a series of strategies to alleviate fear of dentists in young and old alike. We know that a great deal of fear is simply fear of the unknown. We make it a point to curb this fear immediately by providing our patients with as much knowledge as possible. When a new patient comes to us, we conduct a complete dental examination and explain in layman’s terms the problems that we find. We have found that the more details we explain about a problem, the more we demythologize it and deflate the fear factor attached to it.
Along with an informed explanation of the problem comes an informed awareness of the options at hand which we can apply to remedy the problem. We can almost always provide each patient with several types of treatment. Not everyone wants a Cadillac solution—and not everyone can afford one either. We strive to find something that will work for everyone. When people feel they have a choice in their dental treatment, we find that much of their fear of dentists subsides simply because they now feel empowered to make decisions for themselves.
We also find that people tend to lose their fear of dentists as soon as they become more comfortable with our office. We organize dental records, X-rays, photos, and insurance documents so they can always be conveniently accessed and discussed. Our staff is friendly and helpful, and we work hard to always provide bedside manner to our patients.
Once patients get into the routine of treatment at our center, we find that they lose a lot of their fears of the dentist simply on the basis of familiarity. We have often seen as well a reluctance to go to a specialist once a patient becomes familiar with our practice. They get into a comfort zone with our staff that feels difficult for them to move away from. Patients typically want us to administer the treatments we recommend because of our approach to cosmetic dentistry and because of the advanced methods we use to minimize pain and discomfort. This is one of the reasons we are so broad in our scope of services—we want to provide both general dentistry care and cosmetic dentistry care to our community.
For people who simply cannot get past their fear of the dentist no matter how comfortable we make the environment or the procedure, we offer sedation dentistry services. We can have an anesthesiologist come to our office 2-3 times per month to perform IV sedation on patients. For milder cases, we can also administer sedation through oral means to relax and comfort the patient during treatment.
We urge patients who have been procrastinating dental care to seek treatment as soon as possible. The quicker we can pinpoint a problem and come up with a plan of action, the cheaper and more comfortable the treatment options will be.
Because we work with so many children, and because we remember being children ourselves, we have developed a series of strategies to alleviate fear of dentists in young and old alike. We know that a great deal of fear is simply fear of the unknown. We make it a point to curb this fear immediately by providing our patients with as much knowledge as possible. When a new patient comes to us, we conduct a complete dental examination and explain in layman’s terms the problems that we find. We have found that the more details we explain about a problem, the more we demythologize it and deflate the fear factor attached to it.
Along with an informed explanation of the problem comes an informed awareness of the options at hand which we can apply to remedy the problem. We can almost always provide each patient with several types of treatment. Not everyone wants a Cadillac solution—and not everyone can afford one either. We strive to find something that will work for everyone. When people feel they have a choice in their dental treatment, we find that much of their fear of dentists subsides simply because they now feel empowered to make decisions for themselves.
We also find that people tend to lose their fear of dentists as soon as they become more comfortable with our office. We organize dental records, X-rays, photos, and insurance documents so they can always be conveniently accessed and discussed. Our staff is friendly and helpful, and we work hard to always provide bedside manner to our patients.
Once patients get into the routine of treatment at our center, we find that they lose a lot of their fears of the dentist simply on the basis of familiarity. We have often seen as well a reluctance to go to a specialist once a patient becomes familiar with our practice. They get into a comfort zone with our staff that feels difficult for them to move away from. Patients typically want us to administer the treatments we recommend because of our approach to cosmetic dentistry and because of the advanced methods we use to minimize pain and discomfort. This is one of the reasons we are so broad in our scope of services—we want to provide both general dentistry care and cosmetic dentistry care to our community.
For people who simply cannot get past their fear of the dentist no matter how comfortable we make the environment or the procedure, we offer sedation dentistry services. We can have an anesthesiologist come to our office 2-3 times per month to perform IV sedation on patients. For milder cases, we can also administer sedation through oral means to relax and comfort the patient during treatment.
We urge patients who have been procrastinating dental care to seek treatment as soon as possible. The quicker we can pinpoint a problem and come up with a plan of action, the cheaper and more comfortable the treatment options will be.
Labels: cosmetic braces, fear of dentists, general dentistry
posted by Dental Expert at
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