Dr Blum Discusses Fear of Dentists [HD]

Q: Fear is probably one of the major reasons people do not go to the dentist. I'd like you to address that before the audience.

Dr. Blum: Fear is one of the major reasons. You know, if you went to a physician, and he said, "You know you have a cyst on your kidney. Why don't you just hop up right now we'll take care of it right now." I think that you'd fear the physicians. The thing about dentists is we actually do stuff. We do things at the office and people are afraid of that. The procedures, everything happens here. From time to time, we get very, very fearful patients. That's why in my practice, we will do oral sedation, a couple of pills, very specific directions to do that. I never charge for that. It just helps make the patients more comfortable. They can pretty much go to sleep. They wake up and if they have a ride, it takes them home after that. That usually will take care of people that have extreme fear problems. The other fear is the fear of paying. Not pain, but paying. Because dentistry is an expensive thing to do. A lot of people don't realize that dental overhead is enormous. About 80% of what you're paying the dentist never goes to the dentist. We have to have so much equipment to do what we do. Pretty much, that's how I would handle fear. I think also just the attitude of the a lot of people we employ. We have the most comfortable, laid-back, pleasant office staff out of all the dental office that I've been to. So I'm very happy about that. Between the components, that's actually caring, medicating when needed, and the fact that the whole office is really in the same boat when it comes to taking care of people. That allays a lot of people's fears.

1. By: blumdentist
2. Categories Other
3. Views 73
4. Added :31-Aug-11
   Report This Video