Dental/dental hygiene trainees discuss patient fears (2023)
I had a patient that I started working with about a year and a half ago, and he was also a Caucasian male. But he had some clear substance abuse issues and everything. And so, he would come in and obviously have had used right before coming in. So there was that one point where I had to ask him, “Did you take an upper or a downer? Because if I give you a certain anesthetic you could die.” So he was like, “Okay, this is what I took,” so I can make the right decision. But we didn’t go into it anymore, and that I think really built his trust back up with dental professionals. Because he came in just absolutely terrified of dental professionals.