Based on extensive clinical trials and clinic practice, this presentation builds on 25 years of experience with nonpharmacologic means of managing patient anxiety and pain in busy healthcare environments. It documents the effects of unaddressed anxiety on pain, the interconnected experience of the patient and dental practitioner’s stress, and the economic ramifications. It addresses how the natural upward trend of pain and anxiety during these encounters can be avoided, and the patient experience improved by slight, but reflective, changes in provider behavior and use of language. The audience will learn how to build rapport with their patients instantly, elicit positive behaviors and cooperation from them and, if needed, from accompanying individuals.
Listeners will be introduced to the powers of word choice, how they can avoid the adverse effects of negative suggestions, reframe distressing thoughts, fears, and worries, and moderate the effect of painful stimuli. Rapid hypnotic techniques will be described and demonstrated with a sample script. The specifics of language providing anxiety release and relaxation in the office, as well as those needed for additional pain relief, will be discussed and supplemented with findings from a recent clinical trial at Tufts Dental School.