Getting “Me Time” In Round Rock With Comfort Dentistry

Disclaimer: This is a collaborative post. Round Rock is a fantastic city in Texas, well known for its historic sites, but thankfully one of the things that has been firmly left in the past is the barbaric dentistry of last century.Although there are still plenty of people around who have nightmares and panic attacks remembering the old school drills, modern techniques, training and an industry of professionals who genuinely want to help not hinder, has seen the dramatic rise of gentle dentists that use comfort dentistry techniques.

What Is A Gentle Dentist or Comfort Dentistry?

Going way back into the past a really considerate dentist might have offered you some whisky before a procedure, thankfully we have moved well beyond those days.

In Round Rock comfort dentistry means that you have a professional who wants to cause you the least amount of discomfort as possible.

While once this might have just meant putting a numbing gel on your gums or using a local anesthetic before any form of procedure, modern thinking gentle dentists have been trained to go beyond just the minimization of any form of pain that a procedure might cause, but to actually think about ways to make a patient comfortable.

This may mean making sure that your neck is in a good position while they are working on your mouth or offering you darkened protective safety glasses so that the light which they need to see what they’re doing doesn’t hurt your eyes – and you thought using suction to stop you having to cope with not swallowing and offering you a mouthwash to rinse the dust away was a great idea.

Communication and Fatigue

One of the more basic, but apparently previously unheard of, aspects of a gentle dentist who practices comfort dentistry techniques includes insuring that you have a way to communicate with them and that you know you can. Usually this is just raising a hand which will immediately cause them to stop what they’re doing and take any instruments out of your mouth.

This may because you have felt pain when the area should have been completely numb, you need to swallow, or you have a sudden sneeze coming. It seems logical that this would be standard practice and actively encouraged, but strangely it is only a relatively new concept for many dental practitioners – and not everyone actually does it yet!

The other absolutely amazing device that is so simple yet so wonderful is called a “mouth prop”. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780323608268000249

These come in a range of designs, from things that resemble reverse clamps to just little blocks that are like strange mouth guards. The purpose of them is to help you keep your mouth open while your teeth are being worked on, but you don’t have to actively open your jaws.

Being able to rest the muscles in your mouth and jaw by having a device keep your mouth open reduces a lot of the pain and discomfort that patients often feel, particularly if they are going to be in the dental chair for an extended period of time.

Dentistry As The Ultimate Meditation Time

For many people the idea of a dentist visit is a time of anxiety and panic, but believe it or not, with modern techniques the process can actually be so relaxing that people have fallen asleep, even without sedation gas.

Although you may not fall asleep, many people do find themselves getting into a meditative state that is very refreshing. When you think about it, this is really not so surprising. You are in a position where you can’t actually go anywhere or do anything.

You’ve probably turned your phone off, because you can’t answer it, there are no emails to deal with, no children, no spouses, and everyone’s attention is on making sure that you are ok inside and out. You are in a place of safety with trusted professionals.

Modern techniques like using a mouth block mean that you don’t have tense muscles, you may be wearing darkened glasses that help you feel relaxed; you’re lying down in a comfortable position – and you probably have some gentle vibration and white noise going on.

You can take the time to lie there are worry about the things you could be doing, but that won’t allow you to get to them any faster.

So, a better strategy is to leave all your worries outside, Round Rock will still be there in an hour, and this is one of the few opportunities that many people will actually get during their daily routine for having genuine guilt free time where they get to do nothing.

Let’s face is, no one has ever called someone selfish or lazy when they say that they were at the Dentist for an hour – so enjoy your sneaky time before people realize that the dentist is the new go to for me time.