We had a patient who had a fear of dentists so severe it led to severe long term damage. She was 74 years old by the time she finally came to us. Over the years, she had lost large number of her teeth. When her mouth became infected, however, she no longer had the option of procrastination. She had to come in for dental treatment or risk having the infection spread throughout her body.
This was a very dangerous place for her to be in, medically speaking, as well as dentally speaking. Fortunately, however, we were able to stop the infection and rebuild her mouth. In a moment, we will discuss exactly how we gave her a full mouth reconstruction. First, however, we want to candidly discuss the very real fear that people have of dentists and encourage those of you who suffer from it to overcome it.
Long term fear of dentists is normally rooted in some form of childhood trauma. We are not trying to sound faux pop psychologist by saying this?it is a legitimate fact of the mind. Children in the past who got into fights and had teeth knocked out, or suffer from multiple cavities and have many drillings and fillings, or even those who fell on a table and chipped a tooth all were rushed to dental facilities whose methods were not nearly as pain-free as modern general dentists and cosmetic dentists of today.
The fear of the unknown, compounded with the pain of both the injury and emergency dental treatment (particularly needs), and the helpless feeling of being confined to a less than comfortable chair in those days, gave many children in the 60s, 70s, and even early 80s a fear of dentist they
have yet to overcome.
We do not know what exactly happened to this lady, but something like that did happen, and it motivated her to avoid dental care as much as she possible could. If and when she did have a crisis, she would only authorize the bare minimum of treatment, never solving the root of the problem. Then, she would disappear from the office for 10 years or more.
This inevitably compounded the problem to the point she lost 15 of her teeth in total!
Fortunately, we were able to use some very advanced dental methods that both made her comfortable enough to face her fear of dentists, and that allowed us to rebuild her mouth completely. Although her jawbone had deteriorated so badly we could only place a total of 5 dental implants in the upper arch, we were nonetheless able to rebuild a new set of teeth by anchoring fixed dental bridges to these implants.
Using a dental implant as a bridge anchor point is actually better for patients than to use a natural tooth. Attaching bridges to teeth requires they have some of their enamel removed, and the stress of the anchor places further wear and tear on an otherwise healthy tooth.
Most of this patient's mouth is now bridgework, but you cannot tell the difference between the porcelain crowns and natural teeth.
If you suffer from a fear of dentists and do not want to even talk to one, please call us, because we want to talk to you. We are professionals, and we never take the phobias of our patients personally. We have amazing new techniques that can minimize your fear and make you feel comfortable and safe in any dental procedure we recommend for your benefit.
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