Improved dental experiences with a new approach of Virtual Reality
Many patients are unwilling to undergo dental treatment due to anxiety and pain. While the dentists might use analytics and other medical interventions for reducing pain during the treatment, these have their side effects and are quite expensive. As always, technology is coming to the rescue in the form of Virtual reality. It works as distraction therapy in dentistry, and in a medical context, it now receives growing attention. It has the patience to cope with all types of adverse experiences especially when combined with pleasant and relaxing imagery.
When you have patients that require additional assistance to deal with dental anxiety, they would benefit from distraction during invasive procedures, VR is an effective tool.
What can you expect from VR use in dentistry?
The good news for the dentists is that studies done regarding VR use in dental context shows effective pain control when compared to use of a video in standard situations of care. The discomfort and anxiety levels of the patients decrease through use of the equipment. The patients undergoing root canalling and periodontal scaling procedures in their environment had low pulse rate, BP, less discomfort and pain. The results were better than when the patients were shown a movie for distraction during the same procedures.
In children as well, the use of VR technologies with interactivity elements increase the pain tolerance levels significantly almost twice compared the use of passive distraction. This type of distraction involves use of two extra pathways for sensory attention to provide, cognitive active processing component.
Practical implementation of VR in dentistry
Once studies show that the use of virtual reality makes a conclusive difference in the disposition of the patients during the dental procedures, can practical implementation be far behind? Many practices have already started implementing the technique and are showing positive results via its use. The number of patients coming to the clinic has increased especially due to the repeat visits. Being a regular with follow-up treatments and time-to-time dental visits are the key to dental health. Sadly, the fear of the dentist and the procedures involved keep many patients away especially the young people. Virtual reality is opening up the possibilities for the dentists, finally giving them a way to maintain the patient flow on a timely basis.
The relaxation possible with this type of distraction method adds to the popularity of the practice and increases the satisfaction levels of the patients. Move over general anesthesia, local anesthetics, and nitrous oxide, virtual reality is here now so the patients are going to have another, preferable option. The best news for the dentists is that the costs of testing VR at the chambers is minimal and even the associated paraphernalia to set up the arrangement is budget friendly. While, patients having an inherent fear of the dentist now at last get a reason to like dental procedures, others will find their experiences outside enjoyable.
Technology developments are improving the field of dentistry at several levels and now this new approach towards virtual reality will enhance the dental experiences for the patients.
Conclusion
American Dental came to life in the year 1985 and since then it has been offering the best quality of dental accessories to orthodontists, dentists and hospitals across the globe. The company operates from St. Louis Park, MN and offers a combination of premium dental accessories and custom solutions at an economical price tag.
