In today’s episode of Therapy Thursday, Chelsea continues her series about Dental Anxiety and Phobia by looking at some treatment options for patients experiencing them, specifically two different exercises they can implement.
Episode Highlights:
- Paced breathing
- Progressive muscle relaxation
- The importance of practicing these skills
- How to introduce these practices to your patients
Quotes:
“Anyone who has anxiety or any sort of phobia should be using these techniques in conjunction with any other treatment option that they’re given as well.”
“Help our patients expectation-set and that this is a skill, it’s a practice and it gets better and better when they practice these things at home.”
“The key here is to counter the stress response.”
“It is useful to practice the technique yourself, like you as the clinician, so that you’re better able to describe to your patients what you’re actually asking them to do.”
“Both of these techniques are particularly useful for patients who have a really bad gag reflex.”
“If patients come in kind of ignorant of their current mental state, or the ones that have ignored their dental issues for a long time, have a little bit more grace with them.”
“These techniques are also pretty effective for insomnia and they help increase sleep quality.”
Links:
More Therapy Thursday Episodes: https://ataleoftwohygienists.com/therapythursday/
The Dental Podcast Network Channel One homepage:
http://dentalpodcastnetworkchannelone.otcpn.libsynpro.com/
The Dental Podcast Network Channel Two homepage:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dental-podcast-networks-channel-two/id1478530429
