Dental Anxiety

Let’s face it — going to the dentist is never going to be high up on anyone’s wish list. “I’d rather have a baby than a root canal”– how often have we heard that? Even though we have made huge strides in our profession in areas like pain control and noise reduction, you still get comments like that from the late night comedians.

Probably the biggest fear is “the needle” and especially the three to four hour discomfort and ill effects of a mandibular block. The STA System by Milestone Scientific (an acronym for single tooth anesthesia) is something I am really excited about. This is a computer-controlled local anesthesia delivery system that allows you to anesthetize one tooth with no collateral numbness. Using Dynamic Pressure Sensing (DPS) technology enables a technique friendly, highly predictable onset of profound single tooth anesthesia using a virtually painless technique to any tooth for any procedure. It is an intraligamentary injection that is computer-controlled allowing you to administer anesthesia below the patient’s pain threshold. The onset is very quick allowing work to begin almost immediately for endodontic and restorative procedures.

I am particularly enthused above the marketing potential of this technique. Here is your conversation: “Bob-we need to schedule a visit to fix this broken tooth on your lower right side. I know how much you hate being numb for hours, drooling over yourself, biting your lip, and not being able to talk on the telephone. I have a fantastic new technique that will allow me to only  numb up the one tooth that is broken and not your lip and tongue. If I am able to do this for you, would you promise to do me a favor and tell three people about your experience?”

Do this procedure and watch the amazement on the face of your patient. I guarantee you they will become huge emissaries for your practice.