Nervous patients | Tranquil Vale Dental

Start with a walk-through visit

Before any appointment, you can come in for twenty minutes to meet the team and see the room. There’s no examination, you don’t have to sit in the chair unless you want to, and there’s no charge. Lucy or Esme will show you around, you can meet the dentist you’ll be seeing, and you can ask anything at all. Some people come twice before they book. That’s fine.

What to expect, step by step

Pick the visit you are thinking about and step through it. Nothing here is a script. Each step says what happens, how long it takes and what you can ask for.

Before you come (A few minutes at home). We send a secure link to fill in your medical history, or you can do it with us when you arrive. Bring a list of any medicines you take.
Arriving (5 minutes). Come a few minutes early. Esme will welcome you. There is water, a toilet and somewhere quiet to sit. If you booked a quiet appointment the waiting room will be empty.
Sitting up and talking (10 minutes). You sit face to face with the dentist, upright. You talk about what brought you in, what worries you and what you would like from us. Nobody looks in your mouth yet.
Agreeing a stop signal (1 minute). Before anything starts we agree a signal with you, usually a raised left hand. When you use it we stop at once, and we do not start again until you say so.
The examination (20 minutes). A full check of your teeth, gums, mouth and jaw, including a mouth cancer check and any X-rays you need. We say what we are doing as we go. The chair goes back only when you are ready.
Your plan (15 minutes). We explain what we found in plain English. If you need treatment you get a written plan with the options and the cost of each item. You can take it home and think.
What happens next (5 minutes). If you would like to go ahead, we book your next appointments and talk about whether a membership plan would suit you. If you would rather not, that is fine too.

What we do at every appointment

We agree a stop signal. Before we start, we agree a signal with you, usually raising your left hand. When you use it, we stop straight away, and we don’t start again until you say so.
We explain before we do. We tell you what’s about to happen and roughly how long it will take. If you’d rather not hear the details, tell us that too.
You decide what happens today. Nothing is done that you haven’t agreed to. If you only want us to look today, we’ll only look.
Longer appointments. We book extra time so there’s room for breaks, questions and a slower pace. Your first consultation is an hour.
Quiet appointments. The first appointment of each day in our ground-floor surgery is kept quiet: the waiting room is empty and nothing is running in the next room. Ask for it when you book.
Headphones and a blanket. Bring your own music or borrow our noise-cancelling headphones. There’s a blanket on the chair if you’d like it.
Sitting up to talk. We talk with you face to face, sitting upright, and only lower the chair when you’re ready.
Numbing gel before injections. We put numbing gel on the gum first and give the injection slowly. We check you’re numb before we start.

Image: 06-22 (the stop-signal card).

If something particular worries you

Needles. Tell us. We’ll use numbing gel, go slowly, and tell you just before the injection. If you’d prefer not to see the syringe, we’ll keep it out of sight.
Gagging. We can take a 3D scan instead of putty impressions, keep you more upright, and work in short spells with breaks.
The noise. Headphones help. So does knowing what each sound is, and we’re happy to tell you.
Embarrassment. If it’s been a long time, that’s fine. We see it every week. We won’t comment on it or lecture you; we start from where you are.
Something that went wrong before. Tell us about it if you’d like to. Knowing what happened helps us avoid repeating it.

IV sedation

If you’d find treatment very hard even with all of this, IV sedation may help. A sedative medicine is given through a small needle in the back of your hand or your arm. You stay awake and can talk to us, but you feel deeply relaxed, and some people remember little of the appointment afterwards. It isn’t suitable for everyone, and that’s what the assessment is for.

Dr Mehta provides sedation here on Thursday afternoons, with Rosa, our sedation-trained nurse, looking after you from arrival until you leave. You’ll have a sedation assessment first (30 minutes, £60) to go through your medical history and plan the appointment. On the day, you’ll need an adult to bring you, take you home and stay with you for the rest of the day. You can’t drive, work, drink alcohol or sign anything important until the next day. Sedation costs £360 for the first hour and £150 for each extra 30 minutes, on top of the treatment itself.

Slow breathing can help when you feel tense. Press start and breathe along with the pebble: in as it grows, out as it settles. It runs for one minute, and you can pause it at any time.

Press start when you are ready.

Breathe in for four seconds and out for six, six times. Use the buttons to start and pause.

What to say when you call

You can simply say “I’m nervous”. Esme or Lucy will ask what would help, book a longer or quiet appointment, and make a note so everyone who sees you knows. If phoning is hard, email us instead, or use the optional step in our booking form to tell us how you feel. We’ll read it before you arrive.

If you’re nervous about the dentist