I've found that some of the more difficult patients to treat with Solea are the ones that haven't had any previous dental treatment. I find that folks who have had previous dental work with needles and drilling are the best Solea patients. They really value the Solea experience. However, the ones with no previous dental work can be very nervous and do not know how to interpret what they are feeling with Solea, etc. Having a DryShield and air/water/suction can be intimidating and uncomfortable.
This patient is approximately 30 years old and reports having very sensitive teeth to cold. He has also never had any dental treatment.
This patient had 4 class II's done in about 70 minutes. That's a heck of a first treatment appointment! The first filling on #2 took approximately 30 minutes to complete due to a lot of introduction to the laser, DryShield, education, etc. We learned that the patient has a bad gag reflex and that it was responsible for us starting and stopping numerous times. After #2 was completed, we took the DryShield out and the remaining 3 preps(3-MO,4-DO,5-DO) were completed in 25 minutes. We replaced the Dryshield and bonded in the composites in approximately 15 minutes. All the preps were performed laser only, without incorporating the handpiece.
By the end, the patient was amazed at how easy it was and admitted that most of the discomfort was from the DryShield that activated his gag reflex and oddly enough when the dental assistant would blow air out of her syringe. I think this was actually stimulating adjacent teeth(remember he has very sensitive teeth). This is very interesting because he reported that the laser didn't hurt despite it blowing cold air and water when it is activated. I think this was a great case because most of my Solea cases go really smoothly and I had to problem solve, listen and pay attention to the feedback my patient was giving me.
This is important because Solea works!
In my first few weeks of owning a Solea I would have stopped and assumed the laser was hurting him and causing ALL the problems. I would have then numbed the patient and fallen back on the drill as my backup. Once I started trusting Solea, I could start ruling it out as the problem and focusing on other issues such as user error, DryShield, air/water syringe poking the gingiva, etc.