Many patients often experience feelings of nervousness and unease while visiting the dentist. This is a normal experience for many but can often be overcome during your appointment through consistent communication and quality care. However, consistent feelings of fear and worry at each visit can worsen over time and can cause delays in visits and potentially harmful diseases such as tooth decay and gum disease. When this occurs, it’s called dental anxiety. For people with this condition, it’s important to find ways to help manage feelings and fear and worry, and our job as dentists means that we need to provide alternative solutions to combat these fears. One way that dentists have been offering to patients with dental anxiety is laser treatments.
How Can Laser Dentistry Control Dental Anxiety?
Laser dentistry incorporates the use of lasers in everyday procedures. These lasers are designed to deliver waves of energy in the form of light to help remove signs of bacteria. Laser dentistry has been an ever-growing niche over the last decade because it’s begun being used as a way to mitigate symptoms of fear and anxiety in patients, thus creating a more pain-free experience for them. By using these lasers, many dental procedures that are commonly performed can be done just as efficiently without impacting the patient and their emotional health, including:
- Root Canal Procedures: Lasers are most commonly used in root canal therapy. Root canal treatment often focuses on invasive procedures of opening up the affected tooth areas and then disinfecting the tooth area by removing the diseased pulp. However, laser treatments help remove the traditional method of scalpels from the picture and work to reduce any sensations felt during the procedure.
- Tooth Decay Removal: For removing cavities, many restorative procedures require removing the area of tooth decay through the use of lasers. These lasers can cleanly remove tooth decay to prepare the tooth for crowns and fillings.
- Gum Treatment: In cases of periodontal disease or gummy smiles, lasers can be used to remove infections throughout the gums and reshape them without the need for traditional instruments. Lasers can help precisely guide treatment and reshape the gums more accurately.
- Soft Tissue and Enamel Treatment: In other areas of the mouth, dental lasers can also work to cut through the soft tissues and enamel to prepare the mouth for future restorative treatments.
How Laser Dentistry Can Help You
Lasers can provide a gentler touch to normal, everyday dental procedures, but most of all can help people with dental anxiety get the treatments they need for healthy smiles. This painless, silent method can help remove any feelings of intensity and provide a reassuring experience that helps them build trust in their dentist. Researchers cite that lasers can provide a more accurate and effective method for cavity preparation than more traditional methods, especially for children and young teenagers with cavities.
Removing dental anxiety takes work and dedication, and for dentists, laser dentistry provides numerous growth opportunities. To learn more about laser dental treatments and how they can help you, finding a qualified laser dentist in your area is the best way to do so.