I am presently working in Govt sector.The clientele which comes to me generally ranges from fittest of all( army personnels) to their dependents( middle to poor socio economic status) to upper middle class.Lot of dentists may say they fear….that they may contact communicable diseases working in such a set up….namely HIV, forms of Hepatitis, TB , Herpetic infectionsSurprisingly i was never afraid of these things cause i know how to prevent them or minimize my exposure to them or atleast what prophylactic medicines to take.My biggest fear comes from unforseeable emergencies.Usualy in my daily OPD set up of 40 to 55 patients i am on an average giving Local Anaesthesia to atleast 25 to 30 patients for routine dental procedures.There are 1 in a million chances of lignocaine toxicityWe usualy do not check for lignocaine senstivity/toxicity/allergyIn my career of more than 15 yrs in this field i have managed 1 case of anaphylactic shock…. Seen a total of 2.My biggest fear is not someone going into anaphylactic shock…….. my biggest fear is what if i am not able to manage that life threatening condition on my dental chair.Imagine someone going for routine dental procedure and loosing his life. What face will you hold up while facing his family.I know i am qualified well enough to handle such a case but things do turn ugly sometimes.Hope for the best…be prepared for the worst.
Dentists scolded me??!!!!?
We had a family dentist since we were young so naturally, our dentist know a lot about our lives because we engaged in small talks. One time, I went to that dentist for annual cleaning. While he did his thing with my teeth, he told me to spit at the faucet like thing attached to my seat so I did. My spit was to intense that some of my saliva spilled on his machine. He was so furious. He told me he would charge me double for that and he would seek me for reimbursement if his machine gets ruined. Then he asked me to spit again, he pushed me forcedfully to the faucet since he claimed that i was too lazy to even spit properly. The machine was clearly still imtact. It s not like i destroyed the machine with spit. It was just few drops. Then my dentist quickly finished doing my teeth. I feel like ge rushed since he hated me because of the damn machine. I feel insulted with the way he treated me after the accudental spittimg incident. He forcelly pushed me towards the faucet, called me lazy and threatened to maje me pay for the darn machine when its still clearly functioning. He rushed my dental session too. I dony tbink he gave me the dental service i yruly deserved. What do you guys about this?
Are you afraid of the dentist?
I have only been practicing dentistry for three years so maybe I am just too young I mean I know I look very young so maybe that is the problem is maybe people think I am inexperienced but I realized yesterday that I don't have one single repeat customer. I mean not one single person has ever been more that once to see me. I have tried everything - I have fresh pickles in a huge jar people can snack on while they wait, I have a flat screen tv in every room and I play teletubbies dvd's for people to enjoy, I even have "casual thursdays" where me and my assistant Carl wear spandex wrestler costumes with the masks and everything which is always big fun for the kids (although I haven't had a kid come see me in over a year now) so i don't know what to do. I MAKE every one of my patients take one of my hand-made salami and onion tostadas which are just divine and I really love the smell when my assistant Trevor has a fresh pan of them sitting on the shelf beside the urinal to hide the pee smell it reminds me of my grandma. You know what - people are weird- that is the only answer I can come up with. That and they are afraid of all dentists and they don't care about their teeth the way I care, I am meticulous in feeling all around in everyone's mouth personally to check for bumps or odd things in their mouths and I care so much that unlike those zombie cookie cutter dentists I dont wear rubber gloves I mean who wants a bunch of rubber in their mouths, am I right? I trim my fingernails at least twice each year so it is just freaking me out.
I think about it like this:Nobody cares about you as much as you care about you, so they're going to forget about it in about 5 minutesIt's work, it's not personalMany people are bad communicators, you should be receiving constructive criticism, not a scolding, but if that's the way the info is presented, you'll have to work with it, so……try to listen to the message instead of the deliveryEverybody has their own preferences so whatever it is that's wrong might not actually be wrong in every situationYou can either have the scolding once and fix the problem, or you can have people huffing and puffing and getting annoyed behind your back for a long time, this is the better optionSomeone losing their temper says more about them than you (I know when I see someone get loud or aggressive at work I don't really take much notice of who they're talking to, I just note that they look ridiculous for being so emotional about work)But at the end of the day, what is there to be afraid of? Your family scolds you more than anyone else and they care about you the most. It's just another form of communication.
Let me tell you a true story: Back in 1989 I had just been hired a a lowly kitchen/cafeteria worker- and this was my third day on the job. I was filling a bowl of oatmeal for a nurse, when all of a sudden, "CINDY,", a loud voice barks- shaking like a leaf, I dropped the ladle into the pan and turned around. My supervisor Roland didn't crack a smile. "Cindy. have you had your break yet?" I shook my head. Then he grins and sends me on break.I found out later that it was all an act- Roland was as hard as a rose petal, forgiving mistakes and rarely firing anyone. He was a sweetheart. allowed us to sample new foods just to see if "they'd be popular in the cafeteria". Some supervisors and bosses are like that- and when they scold you, it's not because they're mean- they just want you to learn how to get the task done correctly. Look beyond the act and focus on their actions.
The 'Root' CausesBetween 5% and 8% of Americans avoid dentists out of fear, estimates Peter Milgrom, DDS, director of the Dental Fears Research Clinic at the University of Washington in Seattle and author of Treating Fearful Dental Patients. A higher percentage, perhaps 20%, experiences enough anxiety that they will go to the dentist only when absolutely necessary, Milgrom tells WebMD.Milgrom's dental practice specializes in fearful patients. About two-thirds of them relate their fear to a bad experience in the dentist's office, Milgrom says. Another third have other issues for which fear of dentists can be an unpleasant side effect, such as various mood or anxiety disorders, substance abuse, or posttraumatic stress experienced by war veterans, victims of domestic violence, and victims of childhood sexual abuse.Fear of dentists stems not so much from the experience of pain as from the lack of control that patients experience in the dentist's chair, says Ellen Rodino, PhD, a psychologist in Santa Monica, Calif., who has studied dental fear. "You're lying prone, a dentist is hovering above you, and he's putting you in a situation where you can hardly talk or respond. That creates a lot of anxiety for some people because they don't feel in control."
Im Scared to tell my mum i need to go to the dentist! im only 13?
Why on earth would you be afraid to ask your mom to take you to the dentist? Parents are supposed to take care of their children, so this sounds odd to me. Just tell her what happened and you need her to make you an appointment. Don't be all freaked out about the pain you may have there. Any work they actually do on your teeth will be done with a numbing agent so that you don't have any pain while its being done. The dentist will not embarrass you as it is their job to take care of problems like yours. They wouldn't laugh at you. You can't just let these teeth go as they will only get worse.
HUGE FEAR OF THE DENTIST!!!?
Okay, first I have to say that I do understand your fear but you need to know that they are there to help you and it is necessary to go to the dentist. If you don't go it will undoubtably cause more issues for you later on; cavities and gum pains are no fun. Is this dentist the only one in the office? If not then I would request someone else. If he is then maybe your mom can talk to him and tell him that he should be a bit nicer! My son is 5 and just had a filling done, I had no idea how he was going to react (especially since he needed novicaine and it was his first cavity), but the dentist was really nice to him and made it so much fun that my son didn't even feel the needle and thought the whole thing was great and can't wait to go back. Dentists, like all doctors are supposed to be friendly and nice! As for the "extra" teeth, if that's what they are then you may have to have them removed so that the rest of your teeth form properly but only the dentist can tell you. And regarding relaxing during a dental visit, take a book along or a video game and take some deep breaths. Remember that he/she is there to help you not hurt you. And in less then an hour you'll be out of there. Good Luck.