Common Concerns
We take your worries to heart and would like to address and alleviate the concerns you may have. If you feel that you are having a true medical emergency, please call 911 immediately!
Common Dental
Patient Concerns
In our office we take your worries to heart and would like to address and alleviate the concerns you may have. It’s not a secret that many people procrastinate making the trip to a dental office because they associate it with pain, exposure to infectious disease, exposure to unnecessary radiation, etc. While these are very important considerations for everyone, today’s progress and technology have allowed us to almost eliminate these common concerns of the past.
Our stance on emergencies is simple: if you think it is an emergency, then we do too. Please call our office as early in the day as possible so that we can accommodate you quickly. If you call after hours, please leave a detailed message and we’ll get in touch with you shortly.
If you feel that you are having a true medical emergency, please call 911 immediately!
This seems to be the predominant issue in dental practices and the main reason for people not to get their dental health problems addressed on time. With today’s advances in pain control medications and equipment, there is no need to put off your dental care and dental cosmetic makeover because of an antiquated fear of pain. Give us a chance to show you what today’s dentistry has to offer.
The most often used technique is nitrous oxide, or ‘laughing’ gas. It is administered simply by breathing in through a mask and helps patients to feel less anxious, more relaxed and comfortable.
Some patients want to be calmed before the start of any procedure. In cases like this, we prescribe pills to be taken orally, 30 minutes before your appointment time. You can take them either before arriving to the office, or after, in our waiting room. Please make sure you’ll have somebody to drive you after you visit with us is over, as your ability to operate a vehicle will be slightly impaired by this medication.
In our office, we use state-of-the-art numbing medication and delivery systems that greatly reduce your discomfort during dental treatment. Please click here to find out more .
There is a very small group of people who fell extremely anxious about dental treatment and need to be sedated, or put to sleep for any type of dental work. If you believe that you may need such sedation, please click here for more information.
Some people express concerns about the need for dental X-Rays and their safety during the procedure. Dental X-Rays are an indispensable part of diagnosing your oral problems. We have to take them to be sure not to miss any adverse conditions which may not be visible to the naked eye. By taking x-ray images periodically, these conditions can be detected and treated early – before they become big and expensive to fix problems. It is not necessary to take them every time you have a hygene appointment. If you are good about routine check-ups and timely dental care, you may need to have them taken only once a year.
Although the amount of radiation necessary to expose dental films is extremely small, we are able to minimize it even further by use of digital X-Rays which reduces the amount of XR radiation by as much as 90%. We also protect our patients during X-Ray taking with a lead apron. We take special care of our pregnant patients and use X-Ray images on them only in case of an extreme emergency. Please let us know if you are pregnant, because we care about you and your unborn baby!
Because your safety is our main concern, our office strictly adheres to the guidelines recommended by OSHA, American Dental Association and CA Dental Association. We maintain and upgrade our infection control techniques by regularly attending appropriate seminars and holding staff meetings to insure that every staff member is familiar with current guidelines.
The following are some of the basic techniques we use:
- Use of distilled/filtered water supplied to handpieces and air/water syringes
- Cleaning and sanitizing each operatory with appropriate chemical agents as well as employing special ionic purifier/UV disinfectant
- Sterilizing all instruments including handpieces used intra-orally in an ultrasonic cleaner or an autoclave; disposing of all products that cannot be sterilized
- Wearing gloves, masks and protective wear during any patient procedure to prevent cross-contamination
