
We do have a lot of nervous patients. I have tried over the years to understand new and creative ways to give the most gentle and comforting experience that is possible in the Dental Office.
For this reason we have invested with TV’s in the Ceiling which allows patients to be Entertained at the same time we are treating the Patients. My IT guy calls this TV sedation and we try to use this distraction on every patient unless they ask us not to. Some just want to listen to music or listen to an audio book. But the TV is available to them.
I also have a technique that I discovered when I had to get stitches years ago. I can only use this technique on the Upper Maxillary teeth as the lower teeth on an Adult have a thicker bone that they are supported by. What we do for the top Maxillary teeth when it is time to get numb, is use a cotton roll of Topical Anesthetic which numbs anything it touches so the outside of the tissue is made numb. Once that has been effective we then just advance the hub of the needle just past the opening of the Needle. Maybe 1/2mm of penetration. Some people do not feel this. I then give just a little bit of Anesthetic just a few Milligrams. We wait just a couple of minutes and all the soft tissue internally is made numb. Not the teeth but the gums and the outside bone. Now we can give the full amount with very little sense of anesthetic being placed and numb the teeth.
It is so effective that many patients that are very nervous will ask when we will give the anesthetic when it has already been placed. If we are still worried about the patient being anxious or if we need to get the bottom Mandibular teeth numb we will still use the topical as before and then give the Patient Nitrous Oxide (N2O). Nitrous Oxide (N2O) works to relax the patients and at the same time it raises the body’s pain threshold helping us to deliver a more gentle injection. The great thing about Nitrous Oxide (N2O) is that it only takes 10 minutes and we can reverse the effects completely so the Patient is safe to drive or work or go to school.
We also understand that everyone is unique and every individual has a little different physiology. Some people have a hard time getting numb. It’s just their genetic Physiology makes the anesthetic hard to be effective. If you know you are a person like this let us know we have some other special techniques to help genetic inherited metabolism which counters the physiology of the mouth. If you have a badly infected tooth this can reverse the effect of the anesthetic as the medicine of the anesthetic uses the PH of the medicine to block the impulse. If the blood vessels are backed up with infection caused by a badly infected tooth it can cause the Medicine to be neutralized and inhibit its effectiveness. For this reason we recommend that the affected tooth be treated with an Antibiotic for two days so we know that the area around the nerve has a normal PH.
Some people may need to be sedated. This is something that Dr. Anderson does not specialize in but has a specialist that he can recommend for those rare cases.