If you suffer from dental anxiety, trips to the dentist or oral surgeon may often be uncomfortable. However, have you ever thought about reverse dental anxiety, where dentists and oral surgeons are made uncomfortable from patients? Though patient anxiety is nothing we’re familiar with (because our patients are great and we love our patients!), these odd stories collected from around the globe show why these dental professionals may have some patient – or shall we say “patient pet and critter” – anxiety:
- One dental patient would bring her pet parrot into her dental appointments. She stuffed the parrot into her shirt to keep it out of the way. However, once during an exam, her parrot jumped out and tried to bite the oral surgeon!
- A patient came in with a swollen jaw. Worried, the dentist wanted to do an exam to determine what could be the cause. The patient removed his upper denture, revealing a sac of roach eggs. Apparently, a roach had crawled into the man’s mouth when he was asleep and laid eggs! (If we’ve ever heard a reason to choose dental implants over dentures, this is the best reason to date!).
- During a cleaning, a patient explained how her daughter’s pet bird removes plaque from daughter’s teeth by pecking at it with its beak… Gross!