Posts for tag: pain free dentist
If I have to have dental surgery, would dental sedation be a good option for me?
Yes, dental sedation has been and will continue to be a great modality to help with patient comfort. Sedation dentistry will help patients cope with anxiety, be able to sleep better the night before, create amnesia which eliminates knowledge of the procedure, and certainly provide pain control so the patient has a comfortable visit. Talk to your dentist about dental sedation and how it can improve your next dental visit!
Did you know?
There are advanced techniques dentists like Dr.Glasmeier use to help detect cavities before they can be visibly seen?
Enter the Diagnodent: a laser cavity scanner...
A laser cavity scanner can find cavities years earlier than normally could be detected. Thats right...no painful poking, scraping, and prodding involved! Dr.Glasmeier invested in this amazing tool to support his commitment and understanding of dental cavities. This tool is used routinely used to keep this patients healthier and to detect cavities before they can create a major problem and to defray the costs of a cavity turning into a fractured or infected tooth. Detecting decay early can also prevent the onset of tooth sensitivity as well as it spreading!
See Dr.Glasmeier and have your teeth laser scanned for cavities!
Question: Why do dentists prescribe different sedatives for oral sedation procedures? My dentist prescribed Valium the night before and Triazolam the day of the procedure. Why two different sedatives?
Answer: Valium and Triazolam have different lengths of activity as well as time of onset. Likely the dentist prescribed the Valium the night before to help the patient sleep as well as promote some initial sedation that will linger due to its "half life" being much longer than Triazolam. Triazolam is short acting but works very quickly, therefore this is given the day of or 1 hour prior to procedure to help improve/deepen the level of sedation. The prescription of these sedatives is determined by: medical history, type of procedures involved as well as length, level of anxiety and others (e.g. gag reflex). Talk to Dr.Glasmeier about what sedatives are needed for oral sedation dentistry!
Question: Are there ways to do dentistry with out the pain or a needle or sound of a drill?
Answer: Yes there are, but they are somewhat limited in what they can treat. For example, to not need a needle for treatment either the cavity has to be very small or the dentist uses something called "Air Abrasion" or "Laser Dentistry". These are technologies that enable the dentist to fix cavities without using a needle or drill however they are not as effective when the cavities are deep (close to the nerve) or the tooth is sensitive.
I think an injection is much better for pain control and is better for eliminating the "what if I feel this". An injection can almost be next to painless and the discomfort can be controlled by
1. The strength of the topical gel
2. The manner the injection is given by the dentist.
I have a very simple rule...if I can't get you numb, I will not work on you that day...sometimes people just don't numb up well and it's hard to explain why but rest assured that if you are uncomfortable then I am too so I will not make you do anything that is uncomfortable! We generally have great success in getting you more than adequately numb which gives you a very comfortable, pleasant experience. Nitrous oxide(laughing gas) will often help drown out some of the sounds of the drill and also with analgesia(pain relief) during the procedure.
Regarding the sounds of the drill, we always play music while we are working..I don't like the sounds any better than my patients do? I love music from the 80s and 90s so there is always music in the background or we will play whatever music you like. We also play movies if you prefer to listen to a movie and if that's not enough...I might even sing or dance for you!
Back to the original question, the use of injections(i.e. the needle) as well as the handpiece(i.e. drill) is sometimes unavoidable no matter how gentle we are. If this is a concern, then sedation dentistry may be a great way of assisting in eliminating the apprehension/anxiety of these procedures as well as waking up and not remembering what happened.
Question: What is a dental phobia and where does it originate from?
Answer: The word phobia is described as an irrational and sometimes disproportional fear that causes the sufferer to avoid the feared experience. In this case the feared experience is the dental visit or the actual treatment. Depending on the severity of the phobia, physical symptoms can be present. Such symptoms might include nausea or "butterflies", increased heart rate, sweating and the inability to concentrate. In rare instances, it can even be to the point where even the chair cannot be reclined. Some people may even experience a full-blown panic attack at the thought of visiting a dentist.
The most common fears of the dental patient are pain, lack of control, and the unknown. Many patients present to the dentist either in pain or endured a painful dental visit in the past. This could involve the actual injection, or the treatment or even the events that follow the treatment. Some patients are nervous and fearful that they have no control over the situation and cannot participate or be interactive in the decisions of the treatment. Others simply are scared because they do not know what to expect and have nothing to compare the upcoming experience with. No matter what the issue
While it's true that phobias can be overcome, treating a phobia can be a long process. It often makes more sense to take care of much-needed dental work and deal with issues of fear as time allows. Extreme fear or phobia associated with dental care could make you the perfect candidate for sedation dentistry!
