Vermont Dental Conference

Program #2  Understanding Dental Fear: Successfully Treating the Apprehensive Patient

Larry J. Sangrik, DDS   
Audience Code: H, A, O      3 CEUs/Clinical Lecture  

Research indicates that an overwhelming percentage of patients find dental care to be an anxiety-producing experience. The consequences can include: patients not pursuing treatment, declining case acceptance rates, broken appointments, or the provider perceived as not being open to apprehensive people. At the same time, dentists and dental teams become frustrated when techniques that comfort one patient backfire on another. Most importantly, failing to manage dental fear results in patients not receiving the dental treatment they need. Dental teams are encouraged to attend as a group as all will benefit from this presentation.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the four types of dental fear and how to identify them
• Appreciate the significance that the intensity of the fear and the patient’s personality impact patient behavior
• Develop a method to assess the type of fear, intensity, and patient’s behavior in a cost and time effective manner
• Recognize the various techniques that exist to address a patient’s fear and which technique best matches a patient’s need 
• Learn how to get compensated for extra time invested on the apprehensive patient