On the occasion that I am watching television, there are a few things that truly bother me aside from the plethora of reality television shows and the fact that the commercials are louder than the programming. I guess they really want to get our attention.
Another thing that really gets me is a commercial for a local bankruptcy attorney. The attorney is sitting behind his desk talking to viewers about the advantages of filing for bankruptcy, and he compares it to going to the dentist. "You don't know how good it feels until you go," he says. His previous commercials talked about getting a root canal in the same vein (no pun intended).
The majority of people do not go to the dentist for two reasons: money and fear. According to the Academy of General Dentistry, some 40 million people in the U.S. are afraid of the dentist. Patient reactions range from experiencing dental anxiety (nervous about what is going to happen once they get into the treatment room) and dental fear (afraid of the unknown) to full-blown dental phobia (being terrified and physically sick at the thought of going to see us). Some 20% to 40% of patients have some form of dental fear or anxiety, and another 5% to 10% have a true dental phobia.
Dentists are thus in the position of trying to overcome all types of dental nervousness and make patients feel comfortable so they will be more likely to receive treatment. A nervous patient will not want to spend their precious dollars on dental treatment if they are made more anxious. Patients come to our offices with a variety of previous dental experiences, some good, some not so good. The majority of dental anxiety issues rise from poor past dental experiences.
It doesn't help that the media is not always kind to dentists. One glowing example is the classic "Little Shop of Horrors," where Steve Martin portrayed Orin Scrivello, DDS, with sadistic aplomb. Even Matthew Perry in "The Whole Nine Yards" turned to the "dark side" of the law. The dentist is usually the killer in "CSI"-style dramas, using some undetectable poison in their dental cement. There is a great article called "Who Stole Nemo" by Edward Thibodeau, DMD, PhD, and Lauren Mentasti, in the Journal of the American Dental Association (May 2007, Vol. 138:5, pp. 656-660) on this very topic.
It doesn't help when a television commercial compares going to the dentist with filing bankruptcy. Patients, no matter what their status, are all concerned about the economy. To have bankruptcy and dental pain put together on the screen does not help our cause. I wonder if this attorney had bad early childhood dental experiences.
Sheri Doniger, DDS, practices clinical dentistry in Lincolnwood, IL. She has served as an educator in several dental and dental hygiene programs, has been a consultant for a major dental benefits company, and has written for several dental publications. Most recently, she was the editor of Woman Dentist Journal and Woman Dentist eJournal. You can reach her at [email protected].
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