ANXIOUS
AND PHOBIC PATIENTS
At least 10 – 15% of the population are so anxious about
a dental visit that they never go. In their Wiltshire dental
practice, Howard Shrimpton and his Staff are interested in you
and your dental problems. Allow us to hear your fears and discuss
them. Patients from a wide area attend on this basis alone.
We can help you, however unlikely you think
that could be. Over many years Howard Shrimpton has helped
those who could not previously imagine that they would
eventually become regular patients. Some gained new confident
smiles along the way. Others simply gained confidence
and comfort.
About 40 to 50% admit to being anxious about
seeking dental advice and treatment. Most
of these are infrequent
attenders.
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Kissable? Fresh breath?…But easily and
comfortably fixed. |
Just anticipating a visit causes them worry and sleeplessness.
You personally may not have to imagine what state their mouths
may be in, what needless discomfort, bad
breath, or poor smiles they
have. You may well know how these things affect a person’s
quality of life.
You could be one of them, or know someone who is. If you are
nervous about treatment we offer sedation
(to patients suited to it).
Help them or help yourself and arrange to come to us for a First
Visit: a visit that’s all talk and examination and
no treatment! Your kind of visit? This is an appointment where
we really are interested in how you feel, what your fears are.
Together we can help you back to not only acceptable dental
comfort and health, but to your own increased personal confidence
in returning to us.
Mrs P had neglected her mouth and
been too frightened to smile, too worried to attend, for years.
This was the result. Finally she sensibly sought help. We arranged
comfortable visits with the help of sedation, and she was proud
of her final achievement. It changed her into a more cheerful
outgoing person. Future dental visits were facilitated.
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Yes, this really is the same person!
Only 4 visits to happiness. |
What to expect
We know you will need time to acclimatise. We make the time.
You will have discovered on your First
Visit that we took time and care to ensure that you didn’t
go straight to the surgery or even have us look around your
mouth in a hurry (as is too often the case with us dentists).
Most treatment plans are for quite simple work.
By now you will have decided how you are going to
be helped to see through your plan.
We will play your favourite music CDs if you bring them along, or we’ll play you some of our music CDs if you prefer.
Aerial distraction: something to look at.
Part of the aerial photo. |
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You can recline and look at either the wall-mounted flat screen with hundreds of relaxing pictures in a continuous show or at our ceiling-mounted colour aerial photo of the town, taking yourself off on a distracting virtual mind tour of the highways and byeways. Many find this quite therapeutic.
You may have consulted our recommended relaxation
expert for extra advice on how to control your anxiety.
You can easily learn powerful self-relaxation exercises,
and these are of course useful both on a visit to us and
in general day to day life. |
Our trusted colleague Chris Altree is locally based and a qualified
and very experienced hypnotherapist. There are a number of very
grateful patients who have benefited from Chris’s kind
and caring guidance on not only how to cope better with a reluctance
to have dental treatment, but also on wider ranging self-management
of life’s awkward situations. Often, after our initial
suggestion of referral, they were a little wary of attending,
but always very appreciative afterwards of this unusual service.
Maybe you will be having sedation. You
will have signed a consent form, provided that there are no
medical contraindications, and you will have a commonsense advice
sheet to follow. For your safety you will have chosen an escort
for the appointment for your return home.
SEDATION
This is a way of making treatment more comfortable and acceptable.
It can be thought of as being mid-way between fully conscious
and anaesthetised (as in a general anaesthetic), with both
mind and body relaxed. Some patients positively look forward
to sedation, and many previously apprehensive people have
built up valuable confidence here in our Devizes dental practice
because it has made their dental care easier.
Sedation may be very simply taking your supplied drug by mouth
in tablet or syrup form prior to your treatment appointment,
and being escorted here. This makes you drowsy and more relaxed.
For some this can be sufficient to enable treatment to proceed
satisfactorily.
Intravenous sedation appointments will generally be longer
than normal treatments. We will be taking advantage of this
technique and attempting to provide as much of your prescribed
treatment as we safely can in a carefully planned visit.
For you, the time taken will seem to be much shorter than
it is and pleasantly relaxing. You will have some music to
listen to if you wish. A relaxed state is rapidly reached
after a painless injection of the drug, and some short-term
memory loss of treatment occurs. You are skilfully cared for
by the dentist and the trained nurse at all times.
You are relaxed. We are pleased.
Recovery is uneventful and you rest before we allow your escort
to take you home for further rest.
Intravenous sedation for some people helps so much to boost
their later confidence that they may not feel the need for
it again for dental treatment. Others are just grateful that
the technique is there for them when they need it.
At the time of booking for Sedation, you are given helpful
printed information and consent forms. We explain our procedures
to you further.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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| Yes.
We have a particular interest in providing dental
care comfortably for anxious and apprehensive patients. |
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| Yes
we can. But please discuss your problem with us
at your examination visit so we can think about
possible solutions for you. |
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| No.
You are merely in a relaxed state, without losing
all your inhibitions. For example, you retain sufficient
control to be able to rinse out your mouth or to
communicate with us. (So Sedation is much safer
for you than a General Anaesthetic, where you would
lose important reflexes like the cough reflex for
example.) |
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