December 14th, 2010
Everybody knows how important it is to keep up a routine of regularly visiting their dentist. Letting a trained professional examine your mouth is a crucial part of ensuring long term oral hygiene and avoiding painful conditions and invasive surgery. For those who suffer from dental phobia, it is not easy to book that appointment to see the dentist. Dental phobia can take many forms but should be overcome so that your Central London dentist can keep a track on your mouth.
Deep seated fears such as that of needles are hard to get through and can put you off going to the dentist. Such phobias might stem from childhood and these memories easily persist but the fact is that putting off going to the dentist might mean that any problems you have can get worse. The advent of pain free gels means that injections are not nearly as uncomfortable as they used to be. Modern technology allows a number of procedures to be carried out far quicker than they used to be and lengthy sessions at the surgery are just not as common as they used to be.
Personality clashes can put you off from making a trip to the dentist as well. If you had a disagreement with a member of staff in the past, it is easy to avoid making an appointment. You might even feel embarrassed about the state of your teeth if it has been a while since you last saw your dentist but it is worth noting that dentists have seen it all.
The important thing to remember is that there are plenty of dentists out there and if you feel that yours was not sympathetic to your needs then you should register with another one. Modern dentists are more concerned than ever about putting patients at ease and strive to create a relaxed atmosphere with soothing music.
November 17th, 2010
It’s quite extraordinary the fear and anxiety that strikes most of us before a visit to the dentist and according to a dentist in central London, serious problems can arise when trying to treat a nervous patient. Dental phobia’s come in many guises, some borne out of ignorance, others out of experience. One of the problems is that we are willing to put our teeth in the hands of a stranger whom we assume knows how to carry out dental procedures. The answer to this is that we could do a little research of our own on dental procedures available. A visit to see a practise and a consultation with a dentist will alleviate some of the anxieties surrounding our treatments and give us a chance to get to know the person behind the drill. But some phobias stem from bad experiences at the dentists, either to ourselves or to others we know. This is a more difficult problem to overcome, but again, in a face to face consultation you can express the level of your fears and therefore, the dentist can tailor the treatment to your concerns. Dental techniques and procedures have advanced, as has the recognition and treatment of dental phobias in patients. Relaxation techniques and sedation dentistry are now part of everyday dental practises, designed to tame anxiety and relieve pain.
October 22nd, 2010
Sedation dentistry is the process by which anxious or nervous patients are treated in a relaxed environment to remove the fear that they experience when receiving treatment normally. This involves affecting the central nervous system with drugs, including tranquilisers and anxiolytics. These can be administered to the patient in several ways.
Sedation dentistry is sometimes referred to as sleep dentistry although this doesn’t cover the whole array of techniques at the disposal of the City of London dentist. The medication used to induce the relaxed state does not have to put the patient to sleep but can simply act upon the nervous system to relax the patient and make them feel more comfortable.
Sedation dentistry can be used on any patient who is anxious about receiving any kind of dental treatment, be it cosmetic or restorative. In some cases this can help the patient to overcome their fears once they realise that there is little or no extended pain involved in the dental procedures. Sedation dentistry can also be used on patients who suffer from very sensitive teeth and find normal treatment very painful. It can also be used for patients who have medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Cerebral Palsy.
The three main types of sedation are oral conscious sedation, inhalation sedation and intravenous sedation. Each will be used depending on the conditions and the needs of the patient. The dentist may also use local or general anaesthetic to numb specific areas of the body or mouth.
Sedation dentistry has obvious benefits for patients and dentists alike. It allows them to receive the treatment they need without undergoing what can be a very traumatic experience. For the dentist, it allows them to be able to carry out the treatment without the patient behaving in an anxious manner, which can very often make things more complicated.
September 18th, 2010
We all have fears in life, whether it is heights, spiders or even water. It is part of what makes us human. Fear keeps us safe and prevents us from exposing ourselves to danger. Yet fear can also be irrational and on some occasions prevent us from getting the things we need. In extreme cases, fear can be so great that it can be almost paralysing and at this point becomes a phobia.
One of the most common phobias is that of the dentist. Dental phobia affects a surprisingly high percentage of the population and in many cases is the reason behind why people require dental treatment. Quite ironic when you think about it, that a fear causes a person to confront it. But that is exactly what needs to happen in order to conquer a fear for good.
Modern day dentistry has come along way since the dentistry of twenty years ago. Dentists are trained in a much more holistic way and care a great deal more about the welfare of their patients than just their teeth. They are also especially trained to deal with nervous and phobic patients and understand that it can be a very traumatic experience for a person to visit the dentist.
West London dentists know that just by talking to a patient and that calmly and thoroughly explaining what will take place during a treatment goes a long way to helping them relax. They are also trained in many relaxation techniques to help patients calm down and relax before treatment. If you are suffering from a dental phobia but know you need treatment, you will be able to overcome your fear with the help of your West London dentist. Make an appointment to find out more.
August 6th, 2010
There are many common phobias that people share but perhaps the most common is the fear of visiting the dentist. There are many reasons why people are afraid of the dentist, ranging from traumatic childhood experiences to fear of the dentist’s drill but what is certain is that these fears need to be overcome in order to receive the necessary dental treatment. The alternative is a lifetime of painful and costly dental problems that will be far worse than anything that could ever happen to you during a check up or simple treatment procedure.
Letting the problem worsen and avoiding the dentist is always a bad idea as dental problems will not treat themselves or cure on their own. But they can be easily prevented with simple measures that involve little discomfort. Modern dentistry is far removed from the dentistry of the past where perhaps the dentists were more concerned with teeth than the patient. Modern Central London dentists are trained in a ore holistic approach that involves caring fro the patient as well as their teeth. Modern treatment methods are also very different with the emphasis often being on comfort. Tools such as dental lasers have made treatments more efficient, more comfortable and reduced recovery times and technological developments such as Cerec have reduced treatment times themselves significantly.
There are also several methods of overcoming your fears using relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises and simply talking through your fears with a dentist can often help to prepare you for an appointment and alleviate your fears. It has also been proven that aromatherapy, especially lavender oil can help to relax patients. Whatever the extent of your fear, it is always worth exploring avenues to enable you to get the treatment your teeth need.
June 16th, 2010
One of the most common problems dentists experience every day is nervous patients in their chair. This can be a problem because anxious patients are not easy to perform complex and often very intricate procedures upon. After all, when you are operating with potentially dangerous tools, the last thing you need is a patient moving around and making sudden jolts. However, most dentists do understand that visiting the dentist is a very difficult experience for some people.
This is why modern dentist training involves a lot of work on how to relax patients and empathise with how they might be feeling. Whereas in the past, dentists were perhaps more concerned with the treatment than with the patients themselves, an attitude shift has seen a move towards a more caring and understanding approach that treats the patient not just the dental concern.
In a recent study, 9 out of 10 Brits admitted to having some kind of fear of the dentist. In most cases this is simply a mild anxiety that is easily overcome but some patients suffer from a much more severe phobia. This can be helped often by just talking to a dentist before your appointment to gain a better understanding of what is likely to happen during treatment. Other methods of relaxing patients include using breathing techniques and aromatherapy before treatment in an effort to calm the patient down. This has proved to be very successful at Central London dentists and has allowed countless patients to receive the necessary dental treatment they required.
May 9th, 2010
Fear can be a very powerful thing. It can make us avoid situations, cause panic and nausea and in some cases cause a complete paralysis. Anyone who has experienced severe fear, or phobia, will tell you how distressing it can be and how much you try to avoid any situation that could cause an adverse reaction. In many cases of phobia, the object in question is easily avoided. Spiders for example do not play a large part on most of our lives on a day to day basis but your teeth certainly do. Looking after your teeth is important and will hopefully help you avoid any nasty dental complications. But what if you are afraid of the dentist to the point you can’t ever bring yourself to visit for a check up or even more importantly, for treatment?
Dental phobia is a very real and damaging fear that prevents many thousands of people in the UK receiving the treatment they need to keep their teeth healthy. But there are ways to successfully overcome dental phobia without resorting to extreme measures. Many dental phobias are caused by past traumatic experiences. In many cases this occurred when the patient was child. It is important to realise that dentistry in the modern world is very different to how it was forty, thirty of even twenty years ago. Modern dentists are more attuned to the fear of many patients. They are specially trained to help patients overcome anxiety and will employ certain methods to help you obtain the treatment you need.
One of the simplest ways to overcome dental phobia is simply to talk to a dentist. This will often help to alleviate certain fears caused by not knowing what treatment involves. Other successful methods include teaching self-relaxation methods such as breathing exercises and also using calming aromatherapy. Ask your City of London dentist about how you can overcome your fears.
January 25th, 2010
Dental phobias may be inherited from our parents says a West London dentist. For hundreds of years no pain relief was available to the patient of a dentist, and it may well be that this inherent fear gets passed down. The phobia is less apparent these days, and that could be down to a generation of people who have experienced the advances in dental care. There is a difference between an anxiety, a fear and a phobia, the basic difference is that an anxiety is a fear of the unknown, a fear is a feeling of vulnerability that affects people in many situations and the dentist is one such example. A phobia is quite different from the other two in that it is a fear of a known situation, the generation that grew up after the founding of the Health Service in the 1950s experienced a state granted dental service that wasn’t customer friendly. Dentistry has always been a professional on the peripheral of the medical professional, and as such it hasn’t had the research or scientific advances that the general medical professional has enjoyed. Thankfully today the old image of the dentist with the blood splattered apron and the evil smile is a thing of the past. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s school dentists sent us to sleep using gas, nick named `Laughing Gas` it certainly didn’t live up to its name. It sent the patient to sleep with a metal plug keeping the mouth open, when the patient woke up the pain was immediate and often severe. Thankfully today we get a gel on the gums so we don’t even feel the needle, then after the treatment the pain is still numbed for many hours, by the time the numbness is gone a few tablets will generally ease us through the full recovery. Dental phobia is slowly being eased from our genes, and it’s not a day too soon.
January 2nd, 2010
If you have a fear of the dentist or suffer from anxiety before a check up, it is important to know that you are not alone. Dental anxiety is one of the most common in the UK with over 90 per cent of us admitting some form of fear of the dentist. Of course, this fear is much greater for some than for others but in all cases there are techniques and options available to help you keep calm.
First of all, it is important to talk through your anxieties with your dentist. You can rest assured that you wont be the first nervous patient they have seen and they will be trained to help you relax and talk you through exactly what might happen during your appointment. Removing the element of the unexpected and knowing what to expect can be very useful to help you assuage your anxieties.
Dental fear and anxiety can come from a variety of sources but the same few crop up time and again. Past traumatic experiences are very common causes of anxiety, as is a feeling of lack of control, so it is often worth talking these through before your appointment.
Dentists in Central London also offer relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises and self-hypnosis to help patients conquer their fears. It has also recently been found that aromatherapy, particularly lavender oil, is very good at relaxing people before appointments. Whatever the reason or level of anxiety, there is a way to overcome it and receive the dental treatment that you require.
November 18th, 2009
Fear of the dentist is one of the most common fears we have. In the UK a recent study found that over 90 per cent of people admitted to having a fear of the dentist. For most people this fear is easily controllable and they are able to weigh up the need for dental treatment against their fears. For other the fear is more severe and can range form anxiety to a full-blown phobia. This can be very upsetting and the cause of many emotional problems, not to mental dental ones.
Nervous patients are a big problem in the field of dentistry. It can be a very distressing experience for some patients to be in the dentist’s chair and no matter how experienced, this can affect the ability of the dentist to do their job. It is very important that the patient is calm before they begin their appointment.
This can be achieved in a number of ways. Very often just talking to a dentist can help to allay any fears. Dentists are trained to help calm nervous or anxious patients and can run through exactly what is likely to happen during the check up. This is often enough to remove the fear of the unexpected procedures or lack of control that is so fundamental to many patient’s anxieties.
Other techniques to help patient’s stay calm include self-hypnosis and aromatherapy. Self-hypnosis is a series of simple breathing exercises aimed at regulating the heart rate and inducing a mild trance-like state. This can help patients to make it through appointments in a relaxed fashion. Other recent studies have shown that lavender oil before an appointment can help to calm nerves.
Whatever the nature of your anxiety, it is always very important to receive the dental treatment you require to keep your teeth healthy. City of London dentists are trained to help nervous patients so make an appointment to see how they could help you stay calm and in control.
