Skip to main content

Anxiety and fear are common when faced with a visit to the dentist. Even if you’re suffering from a painful mouth ache, you may try to put off the visit. What if there was something to look forward to, or at least something that will distract you from your fears, while you were in the dental chair?

There is! Virtual Reality is proven to minimize your anxiety, fear, and even pain when at the dentist.

Guided VR DirectorTraditionally, medical interventions such as the use of analgesics are often sought to reduce pain and anxiety during treatments. However, this is expensive and the use of medication pain-control can have unpleasant physical side effects. To use them you also have to be comfortable dealing with needles, or other fear creating additions which may make the anxiety worse. Non-invasive treatments, like the experiences offered by Guided VR, offer a pleasant alternative. They use virtual worlds to distract the patient’s attention from the dentist and the treatment. Over 50 published clinical trials of Virtual Reality show that this approach is massively effective. As a consequence, the use of virtual reality (VR) technology in dental care is on the rise.

How can Virtual Reality can help those who are scared of the dentist?

Many people fear getting dental work performed. But being scared of the dentist is often many different fears under one label.

Some suffer anxiety because of the potential pain. Others are afraid of hearing bad news. Many are scared of losing control to unknown people or situations. Some are scared of the clinical medical surroundings, while many have a few of unknown people crowding around them. There are even fears around people placing their hands inside one’s mouth, in part because they are not able to view what the dentist is doing.

Virtual Reality technology can minimize, if not eliminate, your fear of the dentist. Here’s how VR can help:

Guided VR Environments

You are in Control
When a patient visits the dentist, a virtual reality device can be used as they comfortably sit. The dentist or dental hygienist can select relaxing content aligned to your unique preferences.

Guided VR 360 Video

You are Immersed
The patient’s attention is distracted from the dental appointment to the stimuli being presented on the VR screen. There’s now way to peek outside and the scary surroundings are replaced with something much more fun. Meanwhile the dentist is free to perform their duties with minimal distraction.

Dental anesthetic alternatives

You are Entertained
Experiences include visiting other places, listening to meditations, listening to music, and much more. All give the patient a serene way to escape a stressful situation.

Still scared? Ask for Virtual Reality at your dentist

Virtual Reality can help you cope with the perception of pain and unpleasantness during your dental appointment by combining pleasant imagery and stimuli. You’re left with positive memories of the appointment, erasing the perceptions that are often worse than the reality. Be scared of the dentist no more and talk to your Dentist today about if Guided VR!

Learn more about Guided VR for Dentists.

Leave a Reply