Doctor Karishma Bhimafia Talks about Relieving Dental Anxiety
The first thing I do when I meet a new patient is introduce myself. Getting to know that patient, getting to know the rapport, getting to know what they like, what they dislike, what they do, how their day’s been today. Just getting to know the person as a person and not just as a patient is the first most important step in getting to know them and making them relaxed. Then I’ll ask them, do they have any concerns? Do they have any anxiety? Do they have any questions? And we’ll alleviate those one by one.
Just talking to them calmly, you know, doing things like asking them to close their eyes and for kids, like, wriggling their toes when they have a dental anesthetic so they don’t think about the anesthetic but they’re thinking about wriggling their toes, or something different. And then making dentistry as painless as possible. Dentistry doesn’t need to be painful and it shouldn’t be. So alleviating that pain is one of the most important steps in making them feel comfortable.