Dental phobia is more common than you might realize, affecting roughly 13%-24% of individuals worldwide. Your anxiety about visiting the dentist may be in relation to the possibility of pain or uncomfortable sensations, an unfamiliar setting, sitting in the chair for a long time, or the very small possibility of dental complications from a treatment.
While you often have the option for sedation, it isn’t the only way to make your dental phobia a bit easier to manage. In our inviting office in San Diego, California, we at American Dental Clinic strive to make dental treatments as quick and painless as possible using laser dentistry. General and cosmetic dentist Emmanuel Aguilar, DMD, uses state-of-the-art technology, such as the SOL® dental laser, to streamline your dental experience.
So, how exactly does laser dentistry help with anxiety? Here’s what you can anticipate:
Some people experience dental anxiety because of the loud sounds that can happen during certain treatments, particularly the sound of a drill. Rather than sitting through minutes or hours of high-volume instruments extremely close to your ear, you can enjoy a quieter experience with laser dentistry.
A dental laser makes a quiet pulsing sound, which is much more conducive to relaxation in the dentist’s chair. Louder sounds might ramp up your heart rate and make you more tense, which is unpleasant and may drive you away from necessary dental work in the future.
A dental infection, another common source of worry, can happen after certain dental treatments. The mouth is rife with bacteria that can make its way into incision sites and cause inflammation, excessive postoperative pain, and a complicated and lengthy recovery.
With laser dentistry, you don’t have to worry about possible contamination of dental tools making an infection more likely. Lasers are sterile and they also cauterize soft tissues to stop bleeding after a treatment.
Pain is a top reason why many people experience dental anxiety regardless of age. Laser dental treatments, such as gum disease treatment, gum contouring, and cavity removal, are less invasive than conventional techniques and cause less pain and swelling.
Certain laser procedures from your dentist are painless enough on their own that no anesthesia is necessary. That means less preparation ahead of an appointment as well as eliminated risk of any possible complications that come from the anesthesia alone.
Each person with a dental phobia experiences the anxiety that comes from going to the dentist in a different way. If you’d like to take the time to learn more about laser dentistry and the treatments it assists with, schedule an appointment over the phone or online at American Dental Clinic today.
