Health & Fitness DR. RHO KNOWS... GUMS & TEETH by Frank K. Rho, DDS
I’ll be honest with you. I have a phobia. Bugs... Arrrrrgh... I hate them. One time, I was lying on the floor of my bedroom wrestling around with my dog, and I felt something crawling up against my back. It was one of those big cockroach water bugs with their big antennae, evil black eyes and 12-inch fangs. I instantly gained superpowers and flew up to my feet, did a triple airborne somersault half gainer and landed twelve feet away. My dog is forever traumatized. It shouldn’t make sense. I’m 6 feet tall. The water bug was a couple inches at best. If it came down to a one on one fight, with the water bug in one corner and myself in the other, it would be no contest. One well placed foot by me, and the championship would be all mine. But phobias are funny. When one of those things crawl by me, a strange tightening sensation goes up my spine starting from my tailbone, activating every nerve with a tingle, which turns into a full on shivering by the time it reaches the top of my head. I feel my hair rise, and all I can do is look around in embarrassment to see if anyone is amused by my impromptu break dance. My brain says it’s just a little harmless bug but my physiology doesn’t agree one bit. Almost every day in my practice, I’ll see someone come in with a pretty major dental problem who is in a good amount of pain. It is usually a person who doesn’t see the dentist very often because of the same phobia. A vast majority of the time it is because of an abscessed tooth. If you’ve never 14
experienced this before, I’m truly grateful and I hope you never do. If you have, you know what kind of pain this can be. It’s excruciating, its relentless, treatment for it is more complicated and expensive and you could end up losing the tooth altogether. The saddest thing about it is that it could have been prevented. This big problem just about always starts as a small, comparatively minor problem. In my office, 90% of the patients that I regularly see every six months have no dental issues. The patients that I see who have major dental issues are those who have avoided the dentist for a number of years. When we dentists see someone for the first time, our goal is to get them from where they are, if they have any dental problems, to the 90% who, hopefully, will never have to have another dental procedure besides their routine cleaning. Phobia of the dentist is common. It’s been studied that over 60% of the population has some dental phobia of some degree. And I really don’t think the other 40% are actually jumping up and down. Today’s dentistry is constantly changing and improving for the better. The materials and techniques have improved dramatically. We’ve come great strides to giving procedures that are quick, comfortable and painless. In my opinion, one of the best advances we have made is in our ability to manage dental anxiety and generally make your visits more comfortable. I’ve been involved with a number of young dentists who are setting up new dental practices across the country and one of the most exciting things about
it is how important to them it is to make their practice as comfortable and warm as possible. Gone are the cold, hard, plastic, smelly, scary, rooms and whitewashed, monotone, staff robots set on “miserable.” Even some of us dentists are beginning to get a personality. This trend is just a part of an intention to create an environment that is more comfortable to you, our patients. Unfortunately, we can’t completely eliminate all dental anxiety just from having more plants. For people who have dental anxiety and even true phobias, there are medications we can prescribe for you before any treatment is done. I have had some patients who were visibly shaking when I visited with them. They hadn’t seen a dentist in years because of their trepidation and were forced to come to me because the pain in their mouth had just become too unbearable. When they have dental work done with the help of medication, all of them say “I wish I had known about this earlier!” If you have any dental anxiety, talk to your dentist about it. In today’s dentistry, there is always a way to make your visits as easy, painless and comfortable as possible. As far as bugs. I can’t help you there… Dr. Frank K. Rho received his Doctorate of Dental Surgery from Loma Linda University in 1997. He has worked with numerous dentists and specialists and has lectured in communities on the subject of dental care throughout the United States. He is an active member of a number of organizations composed of dentists who keep abreast of the latest trends and techniques in dentistry. Dr. Rho practices general dentistry in Prattville, Alabama.