See How Our Team Relieves Dental Anxiety
Frequently, when patients come to see us, we can detect anxiety. “Is this your favorite place to be?” “No, not even close.” “Why is that?” “Well, I had an experience once.” And to talk about those experience-once items tends to diffuse a lot of that anxiety to find out what did not work well at a previous doctor’s office, or are they dredging up something that started as a 5-year-old and now they’re in their 20s but they’re just as fearful as they were when they were 5? How can we talk through that? How can we empathize, have them understand that yes, we do care about that, to make it more comfortable for them? e use humor in the office a lot, try and take the edge off if you are fearful because of this white coat syndrome you may have heard of before. A doctor walks in and you’re all tense and feeling terrible and getting scared. If a doctor and staff can be viewed as…people seem pretty friendly, “You seem like somebody I might like if I wasn’t in the office, and see if we can get them past that, it’s awesome.
We also utilize different things to help supplement that. We can use anti-anxiety medications, and we have a number of patients who’ve tried that. It’s worked well for them. And when we see them again, they go, “I don’t think I need that anymore. I’m comfortable enough with you guys. I like how I’m treated here. I don’t need that any longer.” In our reviews, we see that same thing mentioned numerous times.
There are other ways of trying to provide care, nitrous oxide, laughing gas. You may have heard of that before. We have that available. And that, again, takes the edge off and does not last a long time, so that when we’re finished with the procedure, you can walk out without any drug hangover, if you will, and be on and about your day. So, those are a couple of the different ways that we use to try to help allay anxiety.