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Just a final quick invitation to our Dental Fear Open Night

Beating dental fear is all about taking the first step and we are committed to helping as many people as possible do just that. So if you or someone you caer about suffers from dental fear why not join us  tomorrow evening   from 7:00pm
Enjoy a glass of wine or a soft drink and have an informal chat with one of our team. We are happy to talk teeth or not if you would prefer. No one here will find your fears unusual or funny.  On all matters dental you are welcome to speak to our dentists or one of our experienced nurses if you would prefer.

More information on  https://www.craigentinny.co.uk/Open

We chat to our new patients in some detail about the origin of their fears. Among our team we meet regularly to share our ideas and learning too. It was one such meeting with John Booth the other partner at my dental practice in Edinburgh  that led to this posting

Many patients at  have told us  that they felt that their fears and even any pain that they were experiencing were being dismissed by their dentist in the past.

The subtext of the conversation being something like “ I have given you 2 injections and yet you are still saying it is sore, you must be numb, please stop acting up and let me get on with your treatment”

Now very often these are NOT the actual words that have been spoken to a patient but it is the message that they have perceived from their dentist or dental team indirectly. Any exchange like this can leave you feeling as though you are being judged as lacking in moral fibre or are making a fuss about nothing. What’s more it may even encourage you to be quiet and try to tough it out………….. this is the wrong thing to do.

It strikes me when I meet someone with dental fear who reports this sort of  history that quite possibly the reverse is true of what my dental colleagues in the past have perceived or inadvertently conveyed. It is not a lack of moral fibre or the desire to make a fuss that leads to someone experiencing pain. There can actually be very good reasons why someone is difficult to get numb and rather than expressing frustration, it is our job to work out what that reason is and so something about it.

For example. some people may simply be far less sensitive to the usual local anaesthetic that we use, and so is much more likely to feel pain when dental work is being carried out. Others take much longer for the anaesthetic to take effect or simply need a different anaesthetic to the one we normally use. There are always solutions to these problems.

Persistently painful visits will destroy your dental confidence so it is critical that your dental team work to finding a strategy that allows you to enjoy pain free dentistry.If every dental visit results in pain then, it is little wonder that you become increasingly (and understandably) anxious before each visit and ultimately want to avoid the dentist until a problem occurs. This is human nature in action, we all avoid stuff we don’t like.

If you suffer from dental fear, I genuinely believe that the single most important thing that a dentist can do is help you develop a great prevention routine. With this in place the volume and frequency of dental treatment that you need will reduce in the long term.

If problems do occur we have to make each individual patient feel as comfortable as possible. Generally I find that once we work out how to make dentistry pain free, then the “recipe” can be applied at all future visits.

Good local anaesthetics, careful techniques and lots of open two way communication all help to make treatment visits as  comfortable as possible. Comfortable and dare I say relaxed visits are the best way to help overcome dental anxiety and fear in the long term.

There are still situations where it can be difficult to get someone as numb as they need to be, but in my view modern dentistry should be pain free. If for whatever reason your treatment cannot be made painless on a given day then there are very few situations that I can think of where pressing on regardless is a good idea.

Dentists as a profession need to overcome our biggest hurdle: preconceptions about our patients and what they experience during visits to see us. When we can do this, listen, observe and generally be attuned to what our patients are experiencing then I think we begin to have a chance at understanding how big a deal dental fear is for many of our ”anxious” patients.

-As a final add on to tonights  posting I hope you will forgive a shameless plug for our
Beat Your Dental Fear Open Night on 27th April
Details are in my last blog posting
The event is entirely free and we would love to meet you in person. register here to attend

Have a great week

Fraser

I regularly write about taking small steps towards your goal of  beating your dental fear. Here is just another way where we could  help you take a  small step toward success. The open night is a  great chance to pop along and meet the team on  a non  dental visit  when you know that nothing else will be happening. The evening is entirely free.

• Discover new ways to beat the 7 most common dental fears
• Enjoy a glass of wine or soft drink and chat informally with our team ( it does not even have to be about teeth!)
• Get direct help and tips to beat your  dental fear direct from our expert team
• Get answers to any  nagging worries our doubts that you have
• A free goody bag for everyone who attends

Some of our most experienced team members will be on hand to chat and answer your questions. Whether it is a question about your dental health, the nervous patient programme or just a fear that you really seem to be stuck on we would  be delighted to see you. The team love getting to know new people and will be very happy to talk to you on any subject you wish, dental or otherwise.  The evening is held in our reception hall and waiting room so there will be absolutely no dental equipment on show and you won’t even need to go anywhere near a dental surgery unless you want to. You are also most welcome to bring along a friend, family member or significant other for moral support.

Our last Dental Fear open night was a little over a year ago. On the night we were  beset by wind rain and storms so we did not expect anyone to venture out on such an awful evening. We were delighted with the turnout and I am pleased to report that almost everyone who attended on the night has since managed to beat their fear.  We really  really do hope that you can spare the time to join us on Wednesday 27th April from 7:00pm onwards.   Book here

Register For the Open Night Here

It still surprises me when someone new comes to see me for an examination or consultation at my Edinburgh Dental  Practice how often they start our conversation by apologising for the “state” of their teeth or for not having attended a dentist within the last 6 months, year or even longer. What’s even more surprising is that people who are anxious or scared  are often the most apologetic. The tone of these chats also makes me believe past experience, the advice of friends or something else has led these  people to believe  that they are somehow going to be “judged” by the dentist when they do attend. Or reprimanded for the condition of their mouth and teeth.

If I had a bad experience and was as a result scared of the dentist  it would make me want to avoid repeating the process. It is a natural instinct and genuinely  nothing that you should feel the need to apologise for. Humans have finely tuned mechanisms to deal with stress or past unpleasant experiences. And one of the foremost  mechanisms is learning to avoid situations that have not gone well in the past.  For example, how many times did you as a child touch something that you were told was hot and would burn your fingers? ….not more than once or twice I bet…… Exactly, this is classic self preservation / learning in action.

So I can understand why people feel this way about their dental anxiety. Often their friends or family are able to attend for dental care. So the anxious or phobic person can often feel that somehow their fear is something they should just be able to “get over”. When they struggle to do so they feel ashamed and often assume that as time goes by their teeth have to be deteriorating. (An Interesting side note here is that in my experience  many anxious patients look after their teeth extremely well to “compensate” for not attending the dentist and often have very healthy mouths.)

I’d suggest instead that anyone who has managed to overcome their  dental fear and make that all important first contact with  a dental practice  deserves congratulations for overcoming their “natural” resistance to do so.  What’s more at that first visit, maybe it’s the dentist who should be apologising to you on behalf of our profession for making you scared or anxious in the first place!

Just a thought

Have a great week

Happy New Year! May 2011 bring you plenty of smiles and only pleasant dental experiences.

Whether this is the effect of so called “austerity” Britain or just a realisation that on planet earth we need to conserve our resources,  it seems that  many  people are looking to achieve more with fewer resources in all areas of their lives and dentistry appears to be no exception.

In the heyday of full on cosmetics as typified by extreme type makeover programmes, we saw porcelain veneers  and crowns being fitted like they were going out of fashion. If the teeth were not in the right position, then porcelain (from which these items are usually made) could sort the proble

m out. The only down side is that whenever you prepare a tooth for a crown or prepare it heavily for a veneer then you run a risk of killing the nerve inside the tooth. Depending on whose research you believe  between 5 and 15% of all teeth prepared this way will eventually die. So it is little wonder that more and more patients and dentists have been asking what the alternatives to crowns or porcelain veneers are.

In situations where teeth are a long way out of position more patients are tending to align the teeth first to improve their overall position before they have the final veneers or bonds placed. This in turn reduces how much tooth needs to be removed. Though it may add 12-18 weeks to treatment time, is this really an issue when you are looking fro results to last for years and years?

As 2010  draws to a very cold and snowy close I have been reflecting on the last 12 months  and realised that there  many, many things to be thankful for. I am indebted to my supportive family and great kids who make every day a joy, without doubt they are  responsible for a lot  of the high points and were invariably supportive and understanding when I experienced the odd low point too. I am grateful  to the many patients who have taken the leap of faith and  entrusted their dental care to our dental practice in Edinburgh. It has been my privilege to watch most of my  new patients  transition from terrified newcomers  to become confident  and happy people who enjoy coming to see us.  Without doubt the team of committed and talented professionals that I work with should take the majority of the credit for this.

So how will you remember 2010 and can I  help you to  make 2011 the year where you finally beat your dental fear?

I set up this blog  to help encourage people who  currently are too scared of the dentist to reach out and take the first step towards  beating their dental fear. To some extent it has worked and we have many success stories already but I would love to do more.   So I have a Christmas favour to ask? 

Please let me know how we can be more helpful in 2011 ?
What could this blog do to  help you move forwards and beat your dental fear?
And finally if you have taken our 7 Day Beat Your Fear e-course please  let me know what worked and what didn’t. Good or bad  I really would love to know.

So until next year I wish you a Peaceful and Happy Christmas

With all good wishes

Fraser

I have just returned from a very enjoyable day at a conference focusing on the concept of Bio-aesthetic dentistry. This is the complicated way of describing what we aim for at my dental practice in Edinburgh namely improving the lives and smiles of our patients without aggressive drilling away of otherwise healthy teeth. It was also reassuring to find a room full of people that feel the same way . As part of the day I was reminded of a very powerful 60 second video by the manufacturers of the Dove range of soaps and cosmetics, that I first saw a few years ago. I think it is as powerful today as when it was released in 2005. Take a look and see what you think…..

 It serves as a timely reminder that in the field of cosmetic dentistry, aesthetic dentistry or whatever you actually want to call the process of enhancing and improving a smile that we need to keep our aims grounded in reality. More importantly it reminds us that almost every cover shot that we see on glossy magazines has been digitally manipulated in some way so these highly altered images are not the best benchmark by which to judge any part of ourselves. Don’t get me wrong I think that enhancing any aspect of ones self  or situation with which we are unhappy can be a positive and life affirming thing to do, be it eating healthily, a new hairstyle, drinking less alcohol, exercising more or indeed improving a smile. I simply believe that chasing a false image of perfection may not be route to happiness.

So if we want to improve our smile ( which is really the only area where I feel qualified to comment ) what can we learn from this? I can only speak for myself  but, for me the answer is that the medias portrayal of perfection can be an illusion and I think it highlights the importance of realising that any cosmetic treatment is done for ourselves and not for others.  If you start from this point your chances of having a great outcome that you love is greatly enhanced.
What do you think?

A smile makeover can mean many things to many people from changing just a single tooth to changing them all.  Most patients that come to see me have an idea in their head of what they wish. I am often asked for a specific treatment for example Teeth Whitening, Inman Aligner, 6 Month Smiles or Porcelain veneers.  These requests are  very often the result of hours of web based research. As a dentist  I am always pleased to find that my patients already know  a lot about the treatments that they are looking for as this is a great way to move towards a situation where you can make a really well informed choice of the right treatment for your mouth.

So to get the best out of any cosmetic treatment a great tip is to begin with the end in mind. By being clear about what you really want to change you can  aim to have the least amount of treatment  to achieve your goals.

Here are just a few questions that might help……

• What do you notice most about your smile good and bad – tells us what things we need to preserve
• When are you most aware of these features – can shed light on hidden problems that only show eg in photos
• If you could change just one thing what would it be – helps us to prioritise

Here are 3 more questions that I am always keen to hear my patients views on

• How do you feel about the colour of your teeth
• How do you feel about the shape of your teeth
• How do you feel about the position of your teeth

I was chatting with my wife after work yesterday and  we got talking about what can make someone feel anxious about a dental visit or treatment We have both worked in Dentistry for more years than we care to count and interestingly we both identified one of the major causes of  anxiety being what people had “heard from a friend” or what they have read about a specific treatment.

I guess this is a common way to form opinions and judgements. We almost all subscribe to this approach in some aspect of our lives yet  it does not a particularly balanced, scientific or for that matter accurate way of doing things. For patients who suffer from dental fear or phobia in particular approach to forming opinions and judgements, while very natural,  can be less than helpful.

The way that we process  information  to make it useful to us  ( in theory ) is based on a mixture of  what we see, hear and  read which is then filtered by our underlying beliefs. Now those of you patient ( and kind )  enough to read my musings on all things  dental will know that I frequently describe our subconscious as having 2 voices. One is the voice of doom that tells us that everything will go wrong with our treatment  and “it” ( whatever “it”  is ) will be a dreadful experience.  The other voice is our rational one that reassures us that everything will be ok and that if  we choose the right people to help us with our dental fear and phobia everything will be fine.  This is true even if it is our own personal experiences in the past  that are forming our opinions and views today, the key here is finding someone who really is interested in helping you.

So here is my question for you if we want to beat dental fear  which of our two voices should we feed the most, the positive reassuring one or the negative one?

There are lost of places on the web where you can hear reassuring stories that affirm the positive reality; that modern dental care can be comfortable, informed, relaxed, and pain free. Dental Fear Central is just one great example. Whats more there a whole group  of people ( like the team at our Edinburgh Dental Practice  pictured to the right)  who are happy to have a chat by phone or e-mail  long before you ever have to actually visit to talk through your fears and concerns.

Talking to enthusiastic professionals and finding positive examples of detal care will not  solve dental fear entirely but if you want to change the way that you feel, they can help you to make a start, and in truth the hardest step is always the first.

So if you have a fear that is stopping you taking that first step why not take positive action and make contact with someone who can help to feed the positive voice that tells you that you can beat your dental fear. If we can help in any way just let us know…..

Have a great week!