Easing dental anxiety with relaxing interactive music

What inmuRELAX does to help

By producing gentle vibrations and calming music, inmuRELAX can help soothe dental anxiety. It creates a calming atmosphere, and gives the patient something else to focus on.

Anxieties are never rational, and it is often the smallest things that can be the greatest source of anxiety, such as the sound of the drill, the sight of a needle lying on a tray or the smell of the dental clinic. Even just hearing the dentist talk using technical terms to describe one’s teeth during an examination can seem frightening.

It’s the anticipation of pain and of discomfort that is unnerving, the fear of the unknown—not necessarily the examination or treatment itself. Lying in the dentist chair can make you feel like you are powerless, and the feeling of not being in control can be a major trigger for anxiety.

inmuRELAX can help give the patient some of that feeling of control back by providing a comfortable distraction. Once in a while the patient has to interact with inmuRELAX by pressing or stroking it in order to keep the vibrations and the music playing. That gives the patient an easy task to focus on. inmuRELAX has a soft cover, and details such as the golden wave that runs around it, which can keep the fingers distracted.

The gentle vibrations help you calm down, and this makes it easier for the patient to drift away.

For dentists and dental hygienists, using inmuRELAX can make their work easier, because they don’t need to spend as much time talking to the patient to keep the patient distracted.

With inmuRELAX you not only have a beautiful soft cushion to hold and keep your hands busy, but you also have the relaxing and calming music and soft vibrations. With your hand in the pocket you feel safe and can more easily get away into your own world while the dentist is doing his or her job.

“Good planning is everything”

Dental hygienist Nina Rune has twelve years’ experience giving dental treatments to kids and teenagers with dental anxiety.

“The most important thing when working with people with dental anxiety, is to take everything one step at a time. To remain calm and not stray from what you’ve planned beforehand. Good planning is everything,” Nina Rune explains.

Nina uses the inmu to calm and to distract her patients while she examines them.

“They feel like they can relax”

“At the clinic we specialise in treating kids and teenagers with dental anxiety. Basically, we have collected the patients here that have anxieties or special needs—diagnosed and undiagnosed. They come here, and they feel like they can relax.”

“One of my patients is a 17-year-old boy. When he comes to the clinic, he’ll stand around for a bit in the waiting room. He just has to get used to the situation and go through the procedures with us before we begin. He’ll tell me that he’s ready, and we can begin the treatment.”

Going through the individual steps of the treatment and making the patient comfortable with the procedure and the instruments used during the treatment is important in making the patient as comfortable as possible before the treatment begins.

In some cases, she and her colleagues will even let a patient come in at a time when there is no one else in the clinic.

“It can feel embarrassing to be afraid to go to the dentist”

“For some of the boys it can feel embarrassing to be afraid to go to the dentist, and they don’t want their friends to know that they feel nervous about coming here.” 

She also visits people’s own homes. For many people with dental anxiety simply being in the dental clinic can feel frightening.

“Sometimes we’ll do home visits too before patients come to the clinic, to reassure them about what is going to happen during the procedure.”

“Everything gets easier when you are calm”

And often Nina Rune will start out slow. First by simply having the patient lie down in the dentist chair. Then by making a simple, non-invasive examination of the patient’s teeth. Slowly, and by taking everything one step at a time, she makes the patient accustomed to the situation and the environment, and when he or she feels like they are ready to move on to the next step, Nina will continue the treatment.

Often even simple procedures can be triggering for someone with dental anxiety.

“The last time he was here, we were making a mould for a nightguard for him, because he has been grinding his teeth. That’s something he has never tried before. And he wasn’t too happy about it. He had been worried about the procedure for several days when he came here.”

“I told him about the inmuRELAX, and told him that I thought it would help him. And it really did. It helped him calm down, and everything gets easier when you are calm. He was very excited about using the inmuRELAX. It made a huge difference. The inmuRELAX really saved him.”

“The inmu really saved him”

Through using inmuRELAX she has found that the inmuRELAX can help calm and provide a distraction during the procedure.

“I’ll give them the inmuRELAX when they are lying in the chair. Then I’ll use a disinfectant wipe to clean their hands. I’ll put the inmuRELAX on their stomach and guide their hand into the pocket.”

Instead of focusing on the look of the dentist’s instruments and on what is going on inside their mouth, they can instead focus their attention on the inmuRELAX; on the soft material, on the music, and on the gentle vibrations that it produces.