Handling nerves before surgery

01 Aug 2016

At TDC we pride ourselves on giving the very best patient care possible. In fact, we have won multiple awards, including Best Patient Care  in the 2020 Dentistry Awards.  We were also “Best Treatment of Nervous Patients” finalists in the 2020 Private Dentistry Awards.

From the first consultation all the way through to the aftercare and check-ups months after the Smile in a Day dental implant treatment has been a success, we make sure patients are very well-looked after.

We also work hard to change people’s perceptions of what dental implant treatment is like. Perhaps inevitably, most people fear the worst when it comes to dentistry, often triggered by painful procedures they’ve had in the past.

So when we ask people after they have had their implants what the worst part of it was, the most common answer may come as a surprise. It’s not pain (the whole surgery is practically painless), it’s not the time spent in the dentist chair, and it’s not the recovery process. It’s the night before.

Worrying is inevitable, but pain definitely isn’t.

Thanks to great advances in science in recent years, our specialist sedation process and long acting local anaesthetics mean patients don’t feel any pain at all during the operation. But of course, that doesn’t stop people worrying about it, and inevitably, things feel worst the night before. In a moment I’ll give some advice on how to cope, but first, there’s a very important point to remember about our Smile in a Day implant therapy and that’s this:

There is only one ‘night before’.

Traditional dental implant techniques normally mean at least three separate surgeries over the course of months. Not only is that more expensive and more inconvenient, but it means you have three of those nights where you are worrying about what will happen tomorrow. With Smile in a Day there is only one day of surgery.

How to prepare the night before

Here are a few things you can do to get yourself ready:

Get a good night’s sleep. Go to bed early and give yourself as much chance as possible.  If you think you need to take a sedative, it’s important to speak to our anaesthetist beforehand as it may affect our sedation process for the operation itself. Also, be honest about the dose you take. It’s easy to underestimate the amount and some people even do so without realising it, as they don’t want anything they say to stop the surgery going ahead. However it’s very important that we as medical professionals understand everything about our patient.

Avoid unnecessary travel. If you have to travel a long way from home to get to the surgery in the morning, consider booking a hotel room locally instead. Traffic is unpredictable  so it can be a weight off your mind if you don’t have to worry about the journey on the day of the operation.

Stay positive. A positive attitude really does help. Remember that dental implants are going to change your life, and that in 24 hours, all the pain you’ve been suffering thanks to bad teeth, and all that infection, will be gone. Unlike traditional dental implant techniques, the benefits will be instant with Smile in a Day.

Remember you’re in safe hands. The TDC team have done this surgery hundreds of times, and we’ve never had anyone say it wasn’t worth it. Nobody has ever said they regretted it, which is something we’re very proud of. In fact, our patients constantly tell us that they would readily pay for, and go through, the whole procedure again. This is because we are very careful about which cases we take on. If you are booked in for dental implants, it means we have huge confidence in the fact that it is the right thing to do.

If you want more advice on preparing for surgery, or you want to find out more about our Smile in a Day dental implants treatment, get in touch for your free consultation*, or call 020 3553 6415.

Sidebar – Intro text

We aim to provide you with information that helps you make the best treatment decisions. In this section, we provide useful articles to answer the questions we are often asked, and tell you more about the award-winning TDC team.