Eye surgery | Injections | Dentist.
A lot of people don’t like going to hospitals, even to visit loved ones. For many of us, there is something about those long corridors and those banks of strip lights and the overarching disinfectant smell.
Of course, all of those things are entirely necessary, but there’s something about them that makes us uneasy. This is a shame because hospitals are places we go to to be taken care of. That’s without the actual procedures themselves.
Again, these procedures are there to improve our lot – but we don’t like the idea of them at all. But never fear, here are three procedures involving those people in white coats that we don’t need to be worried about at all:
1. Visiting the dentist
Dentist – Probably top of everybody’s list, but really in the modern age we don’t have anything to fear at all. A lot of anxiety about opening wide and letting a complete stranger prod around in your mouth, especially amongst Boomer and Generation X patients, is based on the experiences they had as a child.
Back then, things weren’t quite the same and poorer oral hygiene, in general, meant more visits and more fillings and extraction. Nowadays, with the focus on prevention rather than cure, most of us can visit the dentist without feeling the need to run for the exit.
2. Eye surgery
2. Eye surgeryIt’s quite a wide range, but we’re just going to look at just one here, and it’s not the one you might expect. There is plenty of talk debunking the myths about laser eye surgery, but very little talking about how safe cataract surgery is.
While the prospect of having the clouded lens removed from your eye and replaced with an artificial one doesn’t sound good, the reality is much better. Many patients who had misgivings before cataract surgery said afterward that it was easier than expected, they felt no discomfort, and wished they had had it done earlier. See, eye surgery is not that bad.
3. Injections
Well, this one is more specifically the fear of needles. Let’s point out here that this does not include those with trypanophobia (a phobia of needles, not a dislike), just those not too fond of injections and a complete stranger putting a needle in your arm (or anywhere more intimate).
Again, the process of injections is intended to have a positive outcome. Even the ones involving really big needles, like epidurals or a biopsy, are in your own best interests. Medical professionals are trained to recognise signs of anxiety in these situations and can do much to ease your concerns. Also making your misgivings known before visiting the surgery will allow them to make adjustments to relieve your stress.
So there we have it. People in white coats prodding out teeth, operating on our eyes or putting needles into us. All three are probably on our list of things we’d rather not do, but in reality, they are just as safe as many other things medical professionals do for us every day.
