Going to a sleep dentist may not occur to you. After all, when you’ve got a really bad toothache the last thing on your mind might be the form of pain relief you’re going to get. However, in the long run, your choice of pain relief does have an impact on your oral hygiene. This may not be obvious as its impacts are quite subtle.
Fear and Dentistry
Let’s face it: many people are afraid of dentists. And unless your parents are dentists, you have particularly stellar dental health or you’ve been seeing a sleep dentist, you might be too. This is because dental care is often associated with pain. Considering that dental care may involve tooth extraction and other dizzyingly painful procedures, we really can’t blame you.
The Impact of Fear
However, this fear can take a toll on your dental hygiene. People who fear going to the dentist are less likely to regularly make dental visits. It’s not entirely unconscious. It’s a bit of psychological conditioning, in fact. If you go somewhere and frequently experience pain in that location, you might in the future already anticipate pain even when it’s only for your biannual cleaning appointment. And this is where going to a sleep dentist comes in.
Sleeping Through it
When you go to a sleep dentist, you don’t have to feel any pain at all. In fact, you can just sleep through the whole procedure if you like. That way, you are desensitized against the brunt of the pain. Any pain that follows after the procedure is usually just manageable by pain medication and going slow on the kinds of food that you eat.
Once you associate dental appointments with pleasant and even minimally painful procedures, you’re more likely to turn up for your regular visits. In the long run, this means better dental health which, incidentally, means you won’t have as much need for painful procedures in the first place! For more information visit Cascadesdental.com. You can also follow them on Twitter for more updates.