Another Dental Appointment — No Spikes! (He's Learning — Me Too!)

Today I had the 3rd of 4 appointments to replace a broken crown caused by an overzealous dental hygienist. At the first appointment I also got him to undo my implant and have a look as it was irritating me. This involved some of the LOUDEST drilling I have heard apart from getting the implant done itself. Understandable really as it's connected to the bone, but I suffered a spike and temporary fullness in my ear for a few days.

Next appointment I had a chat with him and explained my tinnitus in more detail, discussing the type and amount of drilling involved and the need for breaks in my next drilling session. He was very understanding, and said although he didn't know much about the issues himself, he was just coincidentally reading an article a few days ago about the risks to the dental profession of tinnitus from using drills etc every day. So at that last session, and this session today, there were no spikes. He gave me noise cancelling headphones to wear, which didn't make too tight a seal so there was no occlusion effect - just the job! I only had to stick my hand up once today, after which he was doing the 5 seconds on, 10 seconds off pattern.

Most dentists really do care about not hurting/damaging their patients. And if they don't care, then try and find another one who does!

 

@Mister Muso

Glad the procedure went well. I did not use noise canceling headphones for my last dental visit, but good to know they worked out well for you. I wish more dentists had them as I hate to go buy them just for this one uncommon scenario.

 

@Digital Doc

I was going to bring my own headphones in from the car, but as I suggested I think the seal would have been a bit too tight with my own ones, even though the noise cancelling may be a bit better. The thing was that my dentist was desperate to play music through them for me, even though that's something I avoid because of my hyperacusis. He said he didn't think the noise cancelling would work without music, and wouldn't take no for an answer! So I just said put on some Pink Floyd and keep the volume right down, which seemed to work.