One of the most common forms of dental phobia (or the technical name, odontophobia) is a fear of needles or injections. Obviously this type of phobia can make treatment very difficult as most procedures rely on anaesthetic injections to numb the patient.
If the patient is not comfortable receiving injections, then often the necessary treatment goes uncompleted, which is clearly not the best outcome. Even if the patient is able to confront their fear, their anxiety and stress levels can also mean the anaesthetic is not very effective anyway.
To help treat these kinds of patients, there are products that can be used to remove the fear and pain from injections, or remove the need for an injection altogether. One of these products is The Wand, and we at Brightside have been using it for years with amazing results.
What is The Wand?
The traditional dental syringe has never really changed much in its design over the years; in fact, dentists have been using syringes since way back in 1853! So you could say it’s about time something new arrived on the scene…
Many patients who suffer from a needle or injection phobia don’t realise is that the pain, more often than not, does not usually come from the needle. Certainly a needle can cause a little discomfort, but rarely are they the cause of pain.
In reality, the anaesthetic being delivered too quickly or with too much force creates the pain caused by injections. So imagine if there was a system available that delivered the anaesthetic at the perfect speed, in the perfect quantity every time!
And this is exactly what The Wand does. The flow of anaesthetic is computer-controlled which prevents the injection from being delivered too fast or too much accidentally.
So why don’t all dentists use it?
Like most exciting new pieces of technology, The Wand can take a lot of time and training until it can be used properly. Many practices simply don’t have the time, the money or, if they have been using conventional syringes for a long time, may not want to learn a new technique.
For these reasons many dentists prefer to continue using the traditional syringe, and for the majority of their patients, this isn’t a problem. But for all you dental phobic patients out there, finding a dentist that uses The Wand can help manage your fear so you can comfortably continue with your dental treatment.
So if you’d like a little helping hand with your dental phobia, that’s precisely what we’re here for – we aren’t called the Home of Calm and Gentle Dentistry for nothing! We want to help you manage your fears.
Remember to give us a call on 020 8088 2079 to book yourself an appointment, and click here to visit our Wand webpage to find out more and discover what other nervous patients are saying about it!
