The dental 'fear factor'

The "dental fear factor" as we call it at Dental on Raffles prevents many people from getting regular dental care.

Most times we only see these poor folk when pain is so severe that it forces them to seek our service. Treatment in this situation is not ideal and quite often only adds to the trauma of the whole event because the dentist has to manage a very apprehensive patient, quite often whom he/she hasn't met before and do treatment for a very painful dental problem.

The point of this article is that if you are a victim of the "dental fear factor", the members of our practice want to reach out to you a hand of compassion and empathy, hoping that you will come forward and make a consultation to assess your situation and devise a suitable way of managing your dental care.

Dental fear can be for many different reasons which may include a needle phobia, a bad dental experience, a non-caring operator, a previous traumatic event e.g near-drowning, a low tolerance level or exaggerated stories by other people.

Dental on Raffles manages the "dental fear factor" for many patients with a deliberate non-threatening approach to meet our potential patients, make a connection with them and then through dialogue work out an acceptable way to get treatment done. There are many unique ways we achieve this.

The hardest thing for some patients is to make a consultation time and present at our rooms. Be brave and bring a support person with you if need be. We feel this first visit is most important as it is the beginning of a relationship that will develop trust.

We will ask you what your concerns are and the dentist will carry out an examination, take x-rays and from this make a diagnosis. The emphasis is on creating a non-threatening environment where you can freely communicate and if you are embarrassed about your dental state we won't criticize you for it. We are here purely to help and give you the best outcomes.

There are many things we can do to help to help patients manage treatment:

1) For needle phobia use a topical numbing agent to minimize discomfort. This can be used for dental injections and I.V sedation.
2) To bypass the dental experience we offer both oral and intravenous sedation. Oral is by tablet form and intravenous is via a vein.
3) The use of modern technology and materials which has improved recently.
4) Highly trained operators and staff that are caring and empathetic who work efficiently to a very high standard.

We have many "dental fear factor" patients that over time have developed trust in us to slowly normalise dental treatment and come in for appointments regularly so they can have simple manageable care. For more information read about us on our website and read the reviews made by patients who may be similar to you.

Gary Winter
Principal Dentist
Dental on Raffles