When I first sat down to write this I began giving my qualifications, information about my family, degrees, etc. And then I thought this was all stuff my patients find out about me anyway so I wanted to express two of the things I enjoy most about dentistry.

The first is helping extremely fearful patients come in and have dental work done. We see MANY self-proclaimed “babies” in our place. The overwhelming response I get from patients is they had traumatic experiences in their youth and either the dentist threatened them, continued treatment when they weren’t numb, yelled at them, or even held them down. This just seems so sad to me. I feel horribly that people in our profession have caused such turmoil for so many.

We provide lots of TLC to get people through their appointments. We have seen patients who cry when we talk to them or have an extremely hard time sitting down in our chair. Many adult patients have avoided going because they have been lectured, ridiculed, or treated with condescension. These are the toughest patients. Our goal is to NEVER make anyone feel this way. Do we think we can take away fear and have this be a favorite place to visit? Nope, but we do provide an atmosphere where you can tell us your fear and not be judged for it. And many, many, many patients do get a lot more comfortable with seeing us. I consider it a great triumph if I can get a highly scared individual to the point where they say, “You know, I hate going to the dentist, but you guys make it a lot easier.” Our office as a whole feels an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. It probably doesn’t seem like much, but for us we hope to replace some of those bad memories with good ones.

Now the next thing about dentistry is a little bit emotional. When you give someone their smile back it can sometimes be overwhelming to see their reaction. I’m not talking about a little whitening here—this is more about hugely obvious cavities, broken teeth, missing teeth, really crowded and misshapen teeth. Our smiles are such a big part of our lives. Many people who don’t smile because of embarrassment are perceived as cold, unfriendly, and mean. They might be the nicest people in the world but this is not how they’re judged. Research shows that jobs will go to a person with a better smile as they are perceived as more outgoing and easier to get along with. Think about your children, friends, spouses, parents—when you see a great big smile it just lights up their face. We love doing all sorts of cosmetic work in our office. It can be one of the most frustrating but also most rewarding of the procedures we do. Now if you can imagine yourself spending the last 15 years (or more) of your life covering your mouth, training yourself not to smile, and avoiding certain situations then you can understand the reaction some have to seeing their new look. We’ve had many patients cry (men and women) when they first see the results. Out of gratitude, amazement, disbelief, wonder, whatever the reason—it’s the BEST.

Don’t worry though we love to see patients without these problems as well. The team we have is top-rate and consider dentistry their passion. All-in-all I consider myself to be extremely lucky to work with people I enjoy being with, some really great patients, and to be able to do something I love so much. We hope to see you soon here at Fidler on the Tooth.