Dental Anxiety

Are you one of the millions of people who hate going to the dentist? If so, are you scared to go for some reason or the other? Many people have been negatively affected by someone or something that now causes them to dislike going to the dentist and only going when they are in severe pain. Maybe you were at the dentist and they made fun of you or you had a terrifying experience. Maybe you have heard from someone else how scare it is. Or maybe you just a nervous about people working in your mouth.
     These are all legitimate reasons to be fearful. However, not every dentist is the same and I have heard time and time again, horror stories of what some of our patients have experienced and that in turn horrifies me. When I hear of the experiences some people have had, I am grateful to work in a place where we literally, I know this sounds cheesy, "Turn those frowns upside down." It is one of the perks of my job where I get to see people leave happier and more confident that when they came in.
Here at our office, we work with our patients to help them with their nervousness and discomfort. There are several different techniques that we use to help.

• Using Local Anesthetics. When we do a filling, extraction, root canal, crown, or any other procedure that we don't want you to feel, we simply numb the tooth.
• Nitrous Oxide commonly referred to as laughing gas. This definitely works and can have a variety of effects on different people. Some people simply get very calm and sleepy while others cannot stop laughing. 
• Triazolam or Valium: these we will call into a pharmacy which you will take before you come in. You will need someone to drive you to and from the office as you will be so "out of it", that you can sometimes barely walk in a straight line.
• IV Sedation: This is for patients who are extremely, extremely nervous and none of the options above has helped. This process takes longer as we need to line up a day for the anesthesiologist and our Doctor to have specific time set aside to work on your mouth. 

     At our office, we have you raise your LEFT Hand only if you need us to stop for any reason. Left hand only as the doctor is to your right and when he is working in your mouth, you may bump or jostle him and the effects of him being jostled while using a drill in your mouth can be painful. 

     We also offer a variety of complimentary services to help you enjoy your visit to our office, Water, jewelry cleaning, paraffin hand wax (your hands become incredibly soft), and movies. 

     Please keep in mind that by communicating your fears to your dental professional will help them be able to see you and work with you. If you don't let us know how you feel, we cannot help you as we are not mind readers.