Treatments available - Nervous patient program

Dental phobia is a serious and often paralyzing fear of seeking dental care. Fear is a learned behaviour which, therefore, can be unlearned. Patient-centred behaviour modification that treats you as a whole person, not as a set of teeth can help you overcome your fears. Our nervous patient programme has been developed to incorporate the following:

Empower Yourself

Explanation and clarification of any and all procedures proposed is your right as a patient. If you have a question about a particular procedure, ask it! Empower yourself with the knowledge to alleviate fear of the unknown. You should have input into treatment decisions and choices. You should be honest with your dentist regarding how much treatment you think you can tolerate at first. As you build confidence in yourself and trust in the team that is caring for you.  Even longer appointments if required would become manageable.

You are in Control

Signalling system should be established allowing you to stop for any reason, whether it be because you need more anaesthesia, want to rinse, or simply need a break. The most common signal is raising your hand.

Never be Embarrassed

If you have be ridiculed in the past for your dental anxiety or if you are embarrassed by your present dental condition caused by your neglect, please express yourself honestly and give your dentist and nurse a chance to understand your concerns and show you that they care. You will be amazed at the wealth of treatment options that you might not have thought were possible. With modern dentistry, it’s never too late to recreate a new smile!

Relaxation Techniques

If you feel tense in the chair, the easiest way to relax is through forms of physical relaxation. A relaxed body promotes a clear and relaxed mind. The human body cannot be physically relaxed and mentally anxious at the same time! The brain won’t process these feelings simultaneously. Physical relaxation methods are easier to accomplish at first as compared to cognitive ones, so practice forms of physical relaxation first. Examples of physical relaxation are Diaphragmatic Breathing, Progressive muscle relaxation and various methods of taught yoga.

A relaxed body promotes a clear and relaxed mind. By inducing relaxation in the presence of the stimuli that normally induces phobias (the dental environment), the fear response is greatly diminished over multiple exposures and you will gradually desensitize yourself to these fears as you build confidence. The memories of traumatic visits will be replaced with more innocuous ones and this less threatening environment coupled with your relaxation methods will help you alleviate your fears.

Distraction

As you get more comfortable in the dental environment, you can engage in various distraction techniques that available. The use of a Walkman, Discman, or MP3 player is a common technique. The use of a virtual reality-like set of eyewear will immerse you in a pleasant visual and auditory environment making you forget that you are in the dental chair.

Predictable Pain Control

Modern dentistry has many new techniques with regards to the administration of local anaesthetics to minimise any discomfort, including the routine use of surface anaesthetics before injections are given.

Extreme Cases

Patience and understanding will convert almost any dental phobic but in extreme cases we can use oral or intravenous sedation to help you through your treatment. IV sedation is a very safe technique. A slow injection of a sedative is administered, which induces a relaxed and amnesic state, so that there are no unhappy memories of the visit. Recovery is quick, but we insist that the patient has an escort to take the patient home safely.

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