Are you afraid of the dark? Are you afraid of the dentist? The former may have been a favorite TV show of yours from childhood (Nickelodeon, anyone?), but unfortunately the latter is a negative no-brainer to many. We all know of some friends or family members who really despise their visits to the the dentist and will do anything in their power to make these bi-annual visits as brief as possible.
Since writing my post last week on the new device that eliminates the sound of a dental drill, I've been doing a lot of thinking on why some people have such an extreme fear of the dentist. Let's just call this dental phobia. And as I've been continuing my shadowing and work at my awesome dentist's office this month, although I haven't encountered any patients who seem to have any apparent dental phobia, I do notice some general trends including hand-clasping, eye-closing, legs-crossing, and (just once) chair gripping - even during general cleanings! These behaviors are usually secondary to some of the things you might expect a patient with dental phobia to exhibit.
A fear of dental visits may pose a major issue in achieving and maintaining good oral health. Often, it just takes one negative experience, usually from childhood, for an individual to develop a dental phobia that may last a lifetime. If you had to have seven baby teeth pulled out when you were in the second grade because of the cavities that formed due to your bad childhood brushing habits (and because of all those Hershey's, Reese's Pieces, and Kit Kat bars you gulfed down in one sitting that day after Halloween), it makes sense that your dental phobia likely has its roots in the unpleasant and painful dental experience that ensued. A few numbing shots to your gum and a fountain of your own tears probably didn't help your newly developed phobia either.
But for adults, a number of other factors besides the physical often explains a dental phobia.
The sky-high costs of certain procedures (especially if you don't have insurance or if your carrier doesn't fully cover certain procedures), the disruption of your normal work day, the need for control (especially of a part of your body where you otherwise have 100% control of what goes in and out), and even antiseptic odors can contribute to such anxieties. Self-consciousness and general anxieties may also be possible factors contributing to this fear, in addition to a combination of higher order social and psychological factors.
As you can imagine, a modern-day dentist also assumes the role of a psychologist in ensuring that patients have a pleasant experience while receiving the utmost oral care. Interestingly, some dental schools like UCLA and UCSF dental actually require that all applicants take an introductory psychology course.
Ultimately, while a comfy chair and your favorite TV show playing on the screen may help you temporarily forget about your dental phobia, the most important step in overcoming your fear of the dentist's office begins with good communication between you and your oral care professional.
Never be afraid to ask questions before, during (procedure-permitting), and after a procedure!
For those of you who are more cosmetically-inclined, just imagine how great your teeth will look when all's said and done!
Eric
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Pre-Dental Society Updates
Great news: the website for the pre-dental society is almost finished - it will be up and running soon!
As a brief preview, here is the bio I will be putting up on the website. I've always been asked a lot why a career in dentistry and not say, medicine (or finance, consulting). The answer and story that comes with it is long, but I'll be sure to share it all with you sometime in the future. I promise!
But for now, here's the bio:
Eric Chen
Class of 2012 | Molecular and Cellular Biology
My belief in the commitment to the best self and the common good saw tremendous alignment with my passion for dentistry. The creation of a patient's best self through oral health and confidence, and the commitment to the greater community from a public health perspective - these are my visions in dentistry. Outside of the classroom I serve as President and former concertmaster of the Mozart Society Orchestra, and volunteer heavily with the Harvard College Red Cross. I'm an avid swimmer and water polo player, I love the beach, and I also write a blog on all things teeth!
And no the last line was NOT a shameless plug for my blog ... otherwise I would have included a link! :)
In other news, we're currently in the midst of organizing our 2011 Boston Pre-Dental Conference, to be held on campus in Cambridge! Details coming soon!
Eric
As a brief preview, here is the bio I will be putting up on the website. I've always been asked a lot why a career in dentistry and not say, medicine (or finance, consulting). The answer and story that comes with it is long, but I'll be sure to share it all with you sometime in the future. I promise!
But for now, here's the bio:
Eric Chen
Class of 2012 | Molecular and Cellular Biology
My belief in the commitment to the best self and the common good saw tremendous alignment with my passion for dentistry. The creation of a patient's best self through oral health and confidence, and the commitment to the greater community from a public health perspective - these are my visions in dentistry. Outside of the classroom I serve as President and former concertmaster of the Mozart Society Orchestra, and volunteer heavily with the Harvard College Red Cross. I'm an avid swimmer and water polo player, I love the beach, and I also write a blog on all things teeth!
And no the last line was NOT a shameless plug for my blog ... otherwise I would have included a link! :)
In other news, we're currently in the midst of organizing our 2011 Boston Pre-Dental Conference, to be held on campus in Cambridge! Details coming soon!
Eric
Monday, January 10, 2011
Afraid of the dentist? This active noise control invention will help!
One common reason why people are afraid of the dentist is because of the sound of ... the drill!
I'm sure many of you have experienced the dental drill before - typically it's used to carve out the decayed tooth material before your dentist puts in the filling. Because the sound of the drill usually comes immediately before some amount of acute pain (dentists like to call this pain pressure), many people unfortunately associate the drilling sound with anxiety, a sense of fear (seriously!), and a mouth that was numbed an hour too late.
In reality though, the sound of the drill should be linked to happiness! Your cavities will disappear, and the value of your mouth will increase tremendously with the new addition of expensive (and shiny) metals.
Anyways, a group of researchers at King's College London Dental Institute led by professor Brian Millar have developed something called the digital signal processor chip.
How it works is simple: you attach this small device to your headphones, and - similar to those Bose Noise Canceling headphones - the sound of all that dreaded drilling inside your mouth suddenly disappears!
The trick here is that this device selectively filters incoming sounds. So although your ears will miss out on all that deep drilling, you can still hear the dentist warning that you will continue to feel that "pressure."
Details: this "digital signal processor" chilp analyzes the incoming sound from the dental drill via small microphones placed near the drill and then produces an antiphase sound wave that cancels out the undesirable noise. Further, "adaptive filtering" technology is used so that the sound of the drill, and only the drill, is removed even if the drill's sound wave amplitude and frequency change during your time on the chair.
Yet somehow, you still hear your dentist: "You might feel some pressure ..."
Photo creds to Sony.
Imagine you are the woman in the pink. Imagine the the chair is in a slightly (er .. considerably) more reclined position. And now imagine the sounds of THIS ... eliminated!
Pure bliss!
Now how do we bring this to market?
Eric
I'm sure many of you have experienced the dental drill before - typically it's used to carve out the decayed tooth material before your dentist puts in the filling. Because the sound of the drill usually comes immediately before some amount of acute pain (dentists like to call this pain pressure), many people unfortunately associate the drilling sound with anxiety, a sense of fear (seriously!), and a mouth that was numbed an hour too late.
In reality though, the sound of the drill should be linked to happiness! Your cavities will disappear, and the value of your mouth will increase tremendously with the new addition of expensive (and shiny) metals.
Anyways, a group of researchers at King's College London Dental Institute led by professor Brian Millar have developed something called the digital signal processor chip.
How it works is simple: you attach this small device to your headphones, and - similar to those Bose Noise Canceling headphones - the sound of all that dreaded drilling inside your mouth suddenly disappears!
The trick here is that this device selectively filters incoming sounds. So although your ears will miss out on all that deep drilling, you can still hear the dentist warning that you will continue to feel that "pressure."
Details: this "digital signal processor" chilp analyzes the incoming sound from the dental drill via small microphones placed near the drill and then produces an antiphase sound wave that cancels out the undesirable noise. Further, "adaptive filtering" technology is used so that the sound of the drill, and only the drill, is removed even if the drill's sound wave amplitude and frequency change during your time on the chair.
Yet somehow, you still hear your dentist: "You might feel some pressure ..."
Photo creds to Sony.
Imagine you are the woman in the pink. Imagine the the chair is in a slightly (er .. considerably) more reclined position. And now imagine the sounds of THIS ... eliminated!
Pure bliss!
Now how do we bring this to market?
Eric
Friday, January 7, 2011
And we're back!
Hey all,
Sorry for not keeping up with my posts recently!
December was really hectic with exams, final papers, a concert (which went REALLY well), and ... SNOW back in Massachusetts! But now that I've been back home in LA for a bit (and will still be for another two weeks before school starts again), I promise I'll get back to blogging!
On the bright side, I've been doing some work at the dentist's over winter break, and will be going in again for a full day this Saturday, from 8-6 !!
Can't wait to share! :)
Eric
Sorry for not keeping up with my posts recently!
December was really hectic with exams, final papers, a concert (which went REALLY well), and ... SNOW back in Massachusetts! But now that I've been back home in LA for a bit (and will still be for another two weeks before school starts again), I promise I'll get back to blogging!
On the bright side, I've been doing some work at the dentist's over winter break, and will be going in again for a full day this Saturday, from 8-6 !!
Can't wait to share! :)
Eric
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Neanderthal teeth; anemia risk; China's history
Cool news! So every weekday morning during the academic year, Harvard e-mails a briefing called the Harvard Gazette to all students and faculty at the College. The daily Harvard Gazette always appears in the same format, with three featured articles appearing under 'Today's Headlines'.
Unrelated, but I almost always receive this e-mail at 7:01 in the morning, never earlier, but sometimes a couple of minutes later.
Anyhow, the very first feature under 'Today's Headlines' in the issue dated 11/16/20 is titled Teeth Marks!
"An examination of teeth from 11 Neanderthal and early human fossils shows that modern humans are slower than our ancestors to reach full maturity. The finding suggests that our slow development and long childhood are recent and unique to our own species, and may have given early humans an evolutionary advantage over Neanderthals."
Apparently, a longer childhood is a recent evolutionary development, as indicated by the fact that a young Neanderthal's rate of teeth growth and development was significantly faster than of the closest-to-modern humans that lived almost one hundred thousand years ago.
Ultimately, this (and I'm sure a number of other related indicators including proportional cranial size relative to the body) led to an evolutionary advantage of our human ancestors over Neanderthals. From my understanding, longer childhoods essentially prolong a number of crucial behavioral and cognitive developmental periods.
Interesting!
Also ... my post title = the subject of the Gazette e-mail -- strange, I know! To my knowledge, Neanderthal teeth, anemia risk, and China's history are largely unrelated.
Here's the full link to the article!
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/11/neanderthal-teeth/
Eric
Unrelated, but I almost always receive this e-mail at 7:01 in the morning, never earlier, but sometimes a couple of minutes later.
Anyhow, the very first feature under 'Today's Headlines' in the issue dated 11/16/20 is titled Teeth Marks!
"An examination of teeth from 11 Neanderthal and early human fossils shows that modern humans are slower than our ancestors to reach full maturity. The finding suggests that our slow development and long childhood are recent and unique to our own species, and may have given early humans an evolutionary advantage over Neanderthals."
Apparently, a longer childhood is a recent evolutionary development, as indicated by the fact that a young Neanderthal's rate of teeth growth and development was significantly faster than of the closest-to-modern humans that lived almost one hundred thousand years ago.
Ultimately, this (and I'm sure a number of other related indicators including proportional cranial size relative to the body) led to an evolutionary advantage of our human ancestors over Neanderthals. From my understanding, longer childhoods essentially prolong a number of crucial behavioral and cognitive developmental periods.
Interesting!
Also ... my post title = the subject of the Gazette e-mail -- strange, I know! To my knowledge, Neanderthal teeth, anemia risk, and China's history are largely unrelated.
Here's the full link to the article!
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/11/neanderthal-teeth/
Eric
Monday, November 8, 2010
Tooth and nail (idioms #3)
Tooth and nail usually follows the word fight or some similar verb.
To fight tooth and nail is to fight with all your might, almost viciously. This comes from the idea of fighting with all your teeth and all of your nails, which I guess would be a fair idea if you had sharp fangs or piercing claws.
i.e. She valiantly fought tooth and nail at CVS for that last box of Crest Whitestrips, but her recently manicured claws and braces-decorated-teeth prevented her success.
My thinking is that fighting tooth and nail implies someone really duking it out without restraint (and manners, duh), invoking something rather primal and beast-like. Thus tooth and nail would bode quite well if you had foot-long tusks or the fangs of a sabertooth tiger.
Alas we're humans and should probably only fight tooth and nail with other humans.
An intelligent individual realizing that fighting tooth and nail with this creature would probably be a bad idea.
Photo cred to the movie, 10,000 BC! (An interesting movie to say the least!)
Eric
To fight tooth and nail is to fight with all your might, almost viciously. This comes from the idea of fighting with all your teeth and all of your nails, which I guess would be a fair idea if you had sharp fangs or piercing claws.
i.e. She valiantly fought tooth and nail at CVS for that last box of Crest Whitestrips, but her recently manicured claws and braces-decorated-teeth prevented her success.
My thinking is that fighting tooth and nail implies someone really duking it out without restraint (and manners, duh), invoking something rather primal and beast-like. Thus tooth and nail would bode quite well if you had foot-long tusks or the fangs of a sabertooth tiger.
Alas we're humans and should probably only fight tooth and nail with other humans.
Photo cred to the movie, 10,000 BC! (An interesting movie to say the least!)
Eric
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