More Dentists are Catering to Cowards
Excerpt from The Bergen Record 2001
Are you one of those people who lose sleep, due to anxiety and fear the night before a dental appointment? Do you often cancel right before or, even worse, chicken out on your way there-because the pressure gets to be too much for you? If so, you may be a "dental phobic".
But before you abandon the idea of ever visiting the dentist again, consider sedation dentistry, which will literally allow you to wake up with a new smile. As a means of getting dental phobics back in the chair many dentists today are offering different oral sedation methods to calm patients' fears.
"It's important to make people overcome their phobias so they will go to the dentist. It may mean the difference of keeping your teeth and not keeping your teeth, "says Dr. Laurence Bremmer, who has a private dental practice in Mountainside. Some people are very afraid of pain; others fear the sound, smell, feeling of numbness or just closing the door to be treated".
Negative into positive
Other dental phobics may have sensitive teeth, problems getting numb or have had bad past dental experiences. For these reason, only 50 percent of the population visit the dentist on a regular basis, contends Dr. Joel Singer, who has a dental practice in Fort Lee. "Many times, phobic patients might not get the dental treatment until something hurts or breaks" he says.
If a patient is a good candidate for sedation dentistry- and most are since few medical conditions would cause a patient to have an adverse reaction. Dr. Singer will begin by scheduling a consultation to explain the process. If a person elects to undergo sedation, Singer prescribes a small blue pill called Triazolan, which is taken one hour before an appointment. Preparation for the appointment usually consists of not eating, drinking alcohol, taking medication or smoking 12 hours prior to the procedure, says Singer.
"When the patient comes into the office, we assess how relaxed and sedated they are after taking the pill," he says. "Some patients are very sedated; others act like they are ready to go out and play tennis. At that point we'll give additional mediation if necessary."
Next, Singer's patients are seated in a mattress-covered dental chair and tucked under warm, fleece blankets to instill a feeling of security in them. "We don't start any treatment until the patient is really comfortable," he says. Patients are then lulled into a conscious state of sedation, which allows them to be awake, alert and responsive, yet relaxed enough that they often fall asleep. One of the main benefits of this technique for fearful patients is that it has an "amnesia effect," says Singer. So people leave after a long visit, and all they have is a vague memory of coming into the office and going home".
