Helping patients with their dental phobias

Amy Louise Scarbro, 28, or ‘Amy Tooth Fairy' on social media, is a qualified dental nurse from Southampton who is passionate about helping patients with dental phobias.

Amy's day

I'm usually up at 7 am. I know it's awful, but usually I only have a coffee for breakfast.

I am a Registered Dental Nurse at Dental Concepts Southampton, which is a ten-minute bus drive away and a ten-minute walk. My partner is a bus driver so I am able to get free bus travel, so I use public transport with some walking.

I work Monday to Friday from 8.45 am until 5.15 pm. Each day is so different with so many different treatments. At the practice we offer everything from scale and polishes to complex dental implants to endodontic treatments. As a dental nurse, not only do I provide chairside assistance, but I sterilise instruments, do audits, work on reception, fill out risk assessments and so much more!

My mum has been in dentistry for 40 years as a dental nurse and has only just come off the register, but she now works front of house at the same practice as me. During the pandemic, the previous principal of the practice asked if I would be the ‘Covid runner' to help the practice. This not only helped him but also helped me as I had just been made redundant from my previous job. I did this for six months but then asked if I could help in Decon as I had a clinical background. After a month or so I got more and more interested in the nursing side of dentistry and asked if the principal would train me to be a dental nurse, and he agreed.

Dental phobias

Dental nursing was definitely not what I wanted to do when I left school, in fact I would try to avoid even walking into a dental practice as I had an extreme phobia of dental treatments.

My diploma is in Animal Management and my dream job would be to own a dog day care centre that would offer hydrotherapy and grooming. Or, training service dogs for people with Type 1 diabetes.

What later appealed to me about dental nursing was the fact that I could help people who have anxiety or a phobia like I do.

I'm passionate about people who have dental phobias because I have one myself and I know how bad things can get if decayed teeth are left untreated. I want to show people how to help prevent treatment from being needed through teaching them excellent oral hygiene and by encouraging people to come to their routine examinations.

Strategies

These are the ways I help patients with their dental phobias:

• Advising booking their appointment on a Monday morning first thing. This is to get the appointment out of the way and helps them from overthinking throughout the week which can cause them to not even show up. This can also help with delays on their appointment time. Being the first patient of the day means they will get in the chair on time (unless exceptional circumstances happen)

• Suggesting they eat before their appointment, especially if they are coming in for treatment (unless they're having sedation which should be discussed by the clinician performing sedation)

• Advising the patient not to delay in booking. This can not only cause more problems with their teeth but it can prevent them from coming in at all

• Asking them their needs… Do they want certain music on? Do they need a fidget toy? Would they like to hold my hand?

• Some patients like to know step by step of everything that's happening and some do not. I know myself I would rather not know what's going on (but of course now I do because I've seen it millions of times)

• You can usually tell if a patient wants to talk and you can definitely tell if another does not want to. It may come across like they are being rude but this is probably because they just want the treatment over and done with. If patients are like this I will only talk to them when necessary. I will ask how they're doing twice at most and maybe put my hand on their shoulder while the anaesthetic is going in or if they look like they're in distress

• The patients who talk a lot are probably trying to distract themselves from what's about to happen, so I go along with it, ask about holidays or what their plans are for the weekend etc

• Reminding patients of that incredible feeling when it's all over. The relief and weight that comes off you is something else. This really helps patients push through their fear

• Some patients have been told their whole life that their phobia is irrational or ‘just in their head' but it's not. It's real and it's horrible. We would do anything to live without the fear of the dentist.

Success stories

One of our patients ended up paying for private therapy to help them with their dental phobia. The patient eventually came in and had several RCTs without sedation and I was so incredibly proud of them.

It is satisfying to know that I'm actually making a difference to patients and helping people out with their dental phobias.

A month ago, we had a young child in who had had their upper left central incisor crown snapped off by someone's bag at school. They were nervous to have the injection and sobbed before having it done. After talking to the patient and offering a fidget toy and their mum's hand, they completed the treatment. The child left the surgery with a massive smile (and not just because their tooth was finally fixed).

It is satisfying to know that I'm actually making a difference to patients and helping people out with their dental phobias.

Besides phobias, I also enjoy complex treatments like implants and surgical extractions. As a practice, we have seen cases of tumours in the mandible being caught on radiographs, extra wisdom teeth, and lancing of extreme abscesses. There is so much variety in dentistry.

The more challenging aspect of work is keeping up with all the CQC regulations, but it keeps me on my toes.

I am planning to complete further training in dental radiography, implant dental nursing and lead dental nursing. I would recommend dental nursing as a career as there is so much opportunity for progression and it is so rewarding. But there is certainly a lot of hard work involved.

Work hard to play hard

I normally get home at 6 pm most days. I work hard so that I can play hard. I love going to festivals, theme parks, pubs, nature walks, zoos, and gigs. I also travel to Egypt - this September will be my ninth visit, but my partner's first, so I can't wait to show him why I love it so much there.

I'm a big adrenaline junkie so any opportunity to sky dive, ride rollercoasters or do Go Ape is hard for me to say no to.

In downtime I usually create reels for my Instagram page @amytoothfairy. And I love to host games nights, movie nights and parties. To be honest, it is very rare for me to ever have time to sit down and do absolutely nothing.

I also have a ‘furbaby' called Duggy who is 14 months old.

I don't actually have a time for bed, I just sleep when I'm tired. I get into bed around 8 pm to watch Netflix and then will just fall asleep whenever my body says so.

Interview by Kate Quinlan