Music over the dentist’s drilling

September 16, 2004 / Filed under: Offbeat

I have to go to the dentist this morning, to take care of a loose filling. In other words, I need a "crown."

I am used to being drilled. It’s happened so many times, I’m not fearful of it anymore.

However, I still don’t like the sound of the instruments, and the uncomfortable feeling that lasts until the end of the operation.

I thought it would be neat if there was some way to calm patients, as they get "tooth work" done. And what better way to calm the nerves, than music!

Or even talk radio. I listen to news stations constantly.

Now, it would make sense if there was a radio inside the dentist room, but an even better (and more personal) way would be to allow patients to wear headphones. This way, the sound could be turned up to the point of not being able to hear what the dentist is doing in your mouth. Yuck.

Not that the headphones would completely block all external sounds, it would still be better than nothing.

I am thinking of asking my dentist today if I can do this.

It would certainly make for a more productive hour, instead of just lying there in that same position, straining my jaw muscles, like a dead fish.

Comments/Mentions

# Joshua Street at 9/17/2004 3:31 pm cst

My dentist has a TV mounted in the roof. It's kind of odd, because that's the only TV I think I've watched for... quite some time now. That's normally playing MTV, and he's got speakers setup and everything... yeah, so he's a yuppie dentist :P It's all good!

On a more technical note, how do you think noise cancelling headphones would work with an intermittent sound like that of a dentists drill? I've never used them, but I'm curious...

# Matthom at 9/17/2004 4:52 pm cst

Hmmm. There would be no way that headphones could sound out the dentist's drill. Impossible.

My dentist DID let me use the headphones though, the other day. I can't say it helped a lot, but it was certainly something I've never tried before.

# Dona at 5/14/2005 12:12 pm cst

My dentist offers headphones for listening to music during drilling.