It may surprise you to know that as many as 1 in 3 UK citizens suffer anxiety and fear when visiting the dentist but only around 12% or just over 5 million of us suffer from acute dental phobia. So what’s the difference, and more importantly should it affect the way that dental clinics treat patients?
Complimentary consultations
Here at Sheen Dental we have been successfully fitting dental implants in Richmond for many years and as such are very aware of the problems with both dental phobias and dental fears or anxiety. For instance, an anxiety or fear refers to the sense of the unknown and of what to expect. As the treatment for dental implants is a lengthy and often complex process it’s easy to see why many people would feel this way. One way that we deal with this is to offer a complimentary consultation. This is where those that are considering implant treatment can come and visit the clinic, meet the team and have any questions answered about the process. These way potential patients are fully informed about every aspect of the process and therefore know what to expect.
Inhalation sedation
Dental phobias on the other hand are somewhat different in that they are an irrational reaction to a given situation or specific object or sound such as a dentist drill, or even a clinic waiting room. This is a more serious issue than dental fear or anxiety in that they are often more complex problems. This being the case you may want to seek professional help. At Sheen Dental we practice conscious sedation techniques to help people with dental phobias such as relative analgesia which is otherwise known as inhalation sedation. During this process the patient breathes a harmless mixture of oxygen and nitrous oxide which leads to a pleasant relaxed state. A patient cannot overdose on the mixture and one or two breaths of normal air expels the mixture quickly from the body, meaning that normality returns fairly quickly.
If you’re thinking about undergoing treatment for a dental implant in Richmond and suffer from dental phobia, dental anxiety or fear then talk to us about it. We take dental fears and phobias very seriously and will do everything that we can in order to help you overcome them and put you on track for your treatment. So contact us today on 020 8876 5277 or visit the website at www.sheendental.co.uk to see just how we can help.