Did you know that almost half of the population of this country does not see a dentist unless they are having an emergency?
The cold hard truth is that when many of us were younger, dentistry was very different from today. Many people were actually traumatized by their dental experiences as children, some to the point of phobia. From a dentists perspective, the results of this fear is that the dental phobia becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. The people who are the most anxious do not get the routine preventive care that they need. This lack of preventive care allows small, relatively simple dental problems to progress. What would often require a simple filling in year one, often requires either root canal treatment and crown or extraction (or some other invasive treatment) in year three. The simple and minimally invasive treatments that can be performed with small problems are no longer an option once that problem progresses.
So what can be done? Luckily dentistry and dental technology have evolved to an amazing extent since the early 1990's. Dentists are now using lasers instead of drills to repair simple, small cavities and decayed teeth. For the patient, this usually means no needles, no numbing , and no drill! (Not to mention none of the sound associated with the drill). Dental lasers can also be used to help treat and control periodontal disease, often eliminating the need for traditional gum surgery. The diagnosis of cavities has also greatly improved in recent years. Dentists are using digital technology --digital x rays are much larger and more clear than film based x rays--and expose the patient to much less radiation. Dentists also can now use lasers to diagnose cavities in their earliest phases (using a device like the Diagnodent), even before they become visible on x rays. When cavities are found and treated in this very early stage, the treatments are very fast, minimally invasive, and relatively inexpensive. Finally, caps and crowns, that have always taken at least 2 office visits (which means missing work twice, getting numb twice, and wearing a temporary cap or crown) are being done in a single visit using CAD-CAM (computer aided design- computer aided milling) technology. Again, the benefits of this technology to the phobic person are tremendous. The old saying "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is never more true than when speaking of dental care. Dentistry has changed. Give it a try!
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Please direct any and all questions to Dr. Bard Levey; |
