Dentistry used to be a straightforward science&emdash;one that took into account only the health of the teeth and the gums. • But things have changed. • With spa services, anxiety-reducing techniques, cutting-edge cosmetics and more, today's dentists are going beyond the cavity and catering to the whole person. The days of drill-and-fill dentistry are gone, says Roseville dentist Alfred Osolin, D.D.S. The trend, he says, is away from disease-based dentistry to a broader definition of what dentistry is. Dentistry is moving into the realm of making people look and feel better, says Osolin, whose patients enjoy comfort blankets and 27-inch color TVs while they're getting smile makeovers&emdash;all with the latest technology, of course. • It's a brave new world. Here's what local dentists are doing to make it go 'round.
Aromatherapy, Anyone? Spa Dentistry
Someday, muses Arthur Kwan, D.M.D., there will be an all-in-one building where patients go upstairs to have lipo and come downstairs to have their teeth worked on.
I've heard of dentists (outside Sacramento) doing this, says Kwan, who practices with his wife, Sally Hsu, D.D.S., at Nu Smile Dental Group in Rocklin. But I think we're a little bit more conservative here in Sacramento&emdash;so far.
Although local dentists haven't added a cosmetic surgery component to their practices yet, an increasing number are offering aromatherapy, warm blankets, herbal eye masks and other soothing services to soften the edge of the dental experience. More and more of today's modern dental practices are moving toward keeping the patient's total comfort in mind, says Kwan, who added these and other spa amenities to his dental practice not long after starting his business in 2001. A lot of people we were seeing were very fearful, so we thought, ‘Hey, what if we treated them as if they were friends we were inviting to our home? What can we do to make them feel comfy?'
According to a report released earlier this year by the International Dental Spa Association, there are some 125 to 200 dental spas in the United States. But as the study cautioned, these numbers depend on how dental practices define the term spa.
A lot of them call themselves ‘spa' because there are candles in the office, scoffs dental hygienist Hilda Sadigh, who persuaded her husband, Jack Harouni, D.D.S., to transform his traditional dental office into Sacramento Spa Dentistry, where services range from paraffin wax treatments to full-body massage.
I've been a dentist for almost 20 years and, like a lot of dentists, I'm pretty traditional, so at first I was reluctant, admits Harouni. I kept thinking, ‘How am I going to work in someone's mouth while someone is rubbing their foot?'
But Sadigh, herself a dentalphobe (imagine the irony), was determined. I know what it is to be afraid of the dentist, she says. I used to demand nitrous oxide [laughing gas], but I don't need it anymore because I now get a foot massage while I'm having a tooth cleaning.
Although business is good&emdash;and even better since unveiling the dental spa in 2003&emdash;Harouni claims it's not about the money.
We had a very large and successful practice before the spa, so we didn't do this to grow the business. We did it to make it a more pleasant experience for me, my staff and our patients.
