Dental fears are all too often underestimated concerning those who suffer from them. They are a silent issue that many wish would go away and certainly are not going to draw attention to, often missing decades worth of preventive dental care before a particularly severe dental emergency forces them into a local dentist Chelsea. With little to no experience of their local clinic and no medical history to go on, the whole process can be quite a flustered event, even if you do not have an aversion to the dental industry. Suffering under the burden of a phobia it is insufferable and in a chaotic environment, this can become worse. What often compounds this is the severity of the emergency, which is usually complicated, with multiple layers of delayed treatment and issues with daily hygiene adding to a significant and often multi-appointment treatment schedule. This is not a great way to to engage with a phobia and is more than likely to result in reinforcing a patient's preconceptions, with a great many only attending the first half of the emergency appointments and failing to meet any follow-ups.
Understanding the problem with empathy
Empathy itself has ended up with negative connotations in its own right, seen as an over- coddling or bubble wrapping of a person; this is not a useful perspective. Empathy is understanding what a person is experiencing and while not necessarily condoning or reinforcing it, through that understanding seeing a solution, which is important in dental care. A good start is to note that it's really not that strange to be unnerved by dental procedures. Sitting in a chair in an exposed position, mouths open, eyes blinded by bright light, a degree of anxiety is to be expected and for some, that anxiety has spiralled into a genuinely crippling problem. And as before, if you are in discomfort or fearing judgement, this only exacerbates the issues.
A well set up clinic
A clinic oriented towards nervous patients should provide a calming, less stimulating waiting room. Soundproofing should be a priority and a dimmer, more relaxed coffee shop like atmosphere should be prioritised over the more commonly seen clinical aesthetic. Staff should be briefed in remaining calm and clear, and prepared to receive patients who may not be registered with the clinic and could turn up with emergency needs. So a degree of flexibility should be shown towards clinic registration and appointment booking.
Role of sedation to treat anxiety
Traditionally, there has been reservation about the use of sedation in clinics; this is mostly historic. Sedation techniques do have risks and moving towards local numbing agents has been much safer for the practise of dentistry in general. But local numbing agents do not have the anti-anxiety effect that general sedatives provide. With the development of safer sedatives with less respiratory depression and the risk benefit analysis when it comes to nervous patients who will not engage in care without the application of sedation, dental teams lean heavily towards administering them.
Where possible, a medical history will be explored to check for any other prescriptions that may treat underlying conditions that may be contraindicated by sedatives.
