- For dental patients that want a better dental experience.
- For anyone that fears going to the dentist.
- For dental professionals;
- that want to provide a better dental experience.
- with an interest in dental anxiety management.
- that want to improve the patient-dentist relationship.
There are so many traditional and alternative methods to handling dental anxiety today. Nobody should fear going to the dentist so much that they avoid having necessary restorative or preventative treatments. Avoiding routine dental care invariably leads to bigger dental problems, and, believe me when I tell you that the longer you wait, the more it's going to hurt.
Local anesthesia, anti-anxiety medications, and conscious sedation are all available to help anxious patients deal with the dental procedures they are having done. A group of dentists have recently also come up with a set of hand signals that can indicate clearly to a dentist when a patient needs to take a break from a painful or uncomfortable procedure.
This is a novel way to handle dental anxiety, though it seems so incredibly simple. Giving patients some control over the procedure can alleviate much of the anxiety-after all, visiting the dentist often make people feel less in control and more vulnerable, just by the nature of many of the sensitive treatments.
After being adopted in the US several years ago, patients in Europe are now enjoying the benefits of using hand signals (called DentiSign) to express their level of anxiety to their dentist. More control means less pain and discomfort-and more patient satisfaction.
