Waiting Room Tips?

[Caramelteach]

Hey everyone,

One of the worst aspects for me is trying to keep myself calm while I'm in the waiting room. Does anyone have any tips on what they do to try and stay put at least!

I've got another appointment on Thursday morning, so any suggestions would be brilliant - thank you everyone!

 

[Steve In Cleveland]

If you have a cell phone, you might want to ask the receptionist to call you when they're ready, and then wait someplace nearby, like the building lobby or your car. It will spare you the sights and sounds of the dentist's lobby.

Personally I find good music and a challenging game on my phone help keep me distracted-- although I seldom make any good progress on the games, but just the distraction helps a lot.

Good luck!

 

[Caramelteach]

If you have a cell phone, you might want to ask the receptionist to call you when they're ready, and then wait someplace nearby, like the building lobby or your car. It will spare you the sights and sounds of the dentist's lobby.

Now that's a good idea - I never even thought of that! Thanks Steve!

 

[angel123]

I'm just back from an appt and know what you mean - what works for me is turning up at the last minute and then flicking through a mag or playing with an app - anything where I can distract myself -they were running 10 mins or so late today but it was ok, I try and imagine I am somewhere else and visualise what I'm going to do when the appt is over, promising myself a treat hope you find something that works for you

 

[lissysue]

Waiting outside sounds like a great idea. You could wear headphones and listen to music. Me, while I'm in the chair, I like to count the holes in the ceiling tiles. I hope my dentist never remodels... Both my dentist and his assistants like to chat back and forth about all kinds of things not related to dentistry, that helps too, listening to them.

 

[brit]

Do Word games on your phone or surf the net on your phone.
Go somewhere with relaxing classical background music.
Get the first or last appointment of the day or after lunch to minimise the wait.

I now only get mild waiting nerves if I am seeing a different person for the first time but it used to be a constant feature for me and I used to find nerves melted away once I had been appropriately greeted by the dentist (this is even in bad NHS days). All of my bad dental experiences bar one have been preceded by a lack of a warm greeting so there is more to this than you may think.

Good selection of magazines is no good as we all know you'd end up reading them upside down lol.
Reading my Kindle also doesn't work as you find yourself re-reading the same bit but word games on Kindle does work as it is mindless and diverting enough...the funny ha ha thing is when 'dental words' come up in the letters...lol such as 'jaw' 'pain' etc

 

[OCDGuy]

I waited an hour last week due to a double booking.

I pretty much just zoned out, checked my phone and pretended I was somewhere else. Usually I think about sport and my mind wanders.

Then again, my latest tooth problems resulted from a cricket ball in the face