| 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.
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.
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.
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
I really don't want to know what's going on when you do my teeth.
Is there something you can do to help me?
Yes. We have a particular interest in providing dental care comfortably
for anxious and apprehensive patients.
I can't stand needles. That's why I don't come. Can you do my
treatment comfortably without using an injection in my mouth?
Yes we can. But please discuss your problem with us at your examination
visit so we can think about possible solutions for you.
I like the idea of Sedation, but am I going to act silly or say something
I shouldn't?
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.) |