Sedation Dentistry
Mood Alteration
Mood alteration is one of several techniques used in sedation dentistry to calm hyper nervous dental phobic patients, those with a psychological fear of dentists and dental treatment, so they can comfortably receive the oral care and treatment they need without undue stress and anxiety. Many dental phobic patients do not seek the care they need even when they are in severe pain because their anxiety and fear out weigh their reasoning.
They realize that their condition will only deteriorate and become worse over time without treatment but they avoid it anyway. Sedation dentistry in its many various forms gives hope to the dental phobic patients allowing them to overcome their fears and anxieties and seek the oral health care they need so desperately.
Mood alteration can allow them to feel more comfortable in seeking treatment prior to some catastrophic occurrence that causes them immeasurable pain, loss time from work, and extensive and therefore expensive dental treatment.
Mood alteration reduces dental phobias and anxieties by creating a pleasant non-threatening environment where the patient feels comfortable, safe and secure. This goal of mood alteration is achieved by employing calming music, soothing sounds (such as rain fall, gentile steams flowing, rolling waves on the sea shore etc.), dimmed lights, wearing sun glasses and stereo headphones.
These techniques allow the phobic patient to go into their own world that precludes the fearful sights and founds that they associate with the dental office and dental treatment and that trigger their anxiety and phobias.
These techniques allow them to avoid the sound of the dental high speed hand piece, what most patients call the dental drill, they don’t have to see the dental instruments the doctor employs, which are often sharp and pointed and seem like implements of torture to the patients rather than the instruments of healing that they really are.
There are many ways to achieve mood alteration in patients starting with music they like to listen to. Phobic patients should be encouraged to bring their own music to the dental office to listen to during their dental treatment. Most dental offices will have a cassette player and a compact disc player both with stereo headphones that patients can use during their treatment and follow up care appointments.
Today many patients have their own MP3 players that can store hours of their favorite music and come with their own set of stereo headphones. Music can have a tremendous calming effect on many patients. It sooths their nerves and relaxes them making it easier for both the patient and the doctor during the treatment visits.
The stereo headphones also block out the noise of dental treatment, especially the high speed dental hand piece, that many patients negatively associate with dental care and often times triggers their phobia and anxiety.
When music is not the preferred audio relaxation technique by the patient often times other soothing sounds can be employed to make the phobic or anxious patient feel more comfortable and relaxed while receiving dental treatment. There are many relaxation tapes and compact discs that have many naturally occurring sounds that many patients find soothing and relaxing.
They can range from gentile rainfall, wind chimes, flowing streams, babbling brooks, rolling waves on the beach, and many many others. It’s not important which sound the patient finds relaxing and mood altering just that they find the right sound for them. In fact there are many man made sounds that patients will find soothing and relaxing as well.
There are white noise machines that have a variety of soothing sounds such as white noise, jet engines and a host of others. One of best features of this technique is that the patients get to choose whatever is most agreeable to him or her and since it is on stereo headphones no one else has to be exposed to an environment they feel uncomfortable with.
This can help with doctor patient as well as patient staff and doctor staff relations leaving every one happy and can be especially helful for the patients health. So don’t be afraid to tell your dentist how you would like the treatment environment to be altered to suite you best and make you as comfortable, calm and receptive a patient to treatment as possible.
What’s wonderful about all the mood alteration techniques is that they are universally applicable to all patients since there are no medical contraindications to any of them. This makes these techniques available to all patients regardless of their health and regardless of any medications they may be taking.
This makes it easy for the dentists to recommended these procedures without any reservations and help many patients who would otherwise go untreated. Another important aspect of mood alteration techniques is that they are extremely economical for both the patient and the doctor so cost is not a barrier to implementing these techniques, again making them available to everyone who is in need of them.
