This year, our very own Qausia Hassan was giving a presentation about Pollards Optical (Wakefield) and our journey towards where we are today, to over 500 other Optical professionals. Mrs Hassan shared tips on how she has promoted her practice within the local community and how all Opticians could get involved to raise awareness of eye health in their local areas.

Qausia Hassan, representing Pollards Opticians, Wakefield at the Sight Care Conference 2012, NEC Birmingham

The day was packed with great speakers, and we all came away with great hints and tips on how to make your experience at our pratice excellent!

Sight Care Conference Hall, Birmingham

The main body of the presentation was about how Pollards have taken the initiative to go out into local social groups and given small, informal talks on eye health and how to take care of your eyesight. If you would like us to some and present at your local social group, please call us on 01924 373697.

Laura Davison, Practice Manager

Linda McGregor with Dr Khalid Hassan, Pollards Dental

Published on Friday 4 November 2011 11:56

The death of a woman who ignored an infected tooth for three weeks – because she was too afraid to go to the dentist, has highlighted just how afraid some people are to visit their dentist.

According to a General Dental Association report, as many as 25 per cent of people are frightened of going to the dentist.

The fear is often caused by a bad experience during childhood when dental techniques were not as advanced as they were today

But people who fail to visit the dentist regularly and ignore problems with their teeth could be putting their lives at risk. Amanda Latigo, 23, died of multiple organ failure caused by the molar turning septic in February. She was taken to hospital, but suffered cardiac arrest on the way, an inquest into her death last week was told. The coroner recorded a verdict of death from natural causes.

But Ms Latigo was far from alone in having a paralysing fear of the dentist.

Linda McGregor, 69, from Wakefield had refused to visit the dentist for 25 years because she was too scared.

“I last went to the dentist in 1989. All I can think is that it goes back to some bad experience when I was quite young,” explains Mrs McGregor. “Back then the dentists was much more brutal than it is now. I hated the injections and the gas they used to give you. I always hated going to the dentist but it got worse and worse until I just couldn’t go.

“Just thinking about going would make me feel sick to my stomach and make my heart race – something similar to a panic attack I imagine.”

Mrs McGregor’s daughter, Anne Walker, tried for seven years to get her mother to visit the dentist because she knew how important it was for her to keep her mouth healthy.

In the end she persuaded her mother to visit her dentist, Khalid Hassan who offered a technique called conscious sedation after undergoing special training and mentoring in the technique which costs £120.

The aim of sedation dentistry is used to provide a relaxing and anxiety-free experience for patients during dental procedures. It enables those too afraid to go to the dentist to receive the dental care they need, while avoiding the common apprehension known as dental phobia.

The sedatives are placed into the back of the hand and administered in to the blood system throughout treatment. IV sedation does not actually induce sleep; instead, the person remains conscious and can follow instructions from the dentist. However, the feeling of relaxation will be intense enough for them not to remember much about what happened under treatment.

Although Mrs McGregor agreed to visit Dr Hassan at Pollards Optical Dental clinic in Wakefield it took her 18 months before she would agree to treatment.

“Fear of the dentist is quite common,” explains Dr Hassan, who uses conscious sedation once a week on his patients. “But it is quite unusual for someone to wait 25 years and also quite dangerous. Once an infection has set in it can be quite hard to treat even with antibiotics. ”

“I was a bit scared at first but once I had the sedative I just felt totally relaxed,” says Mrs McGregor. “All my anxiety disappeared and I felt no pain whatsoever.”

Before carrying out conscious sedation, with a qualified dental nurse in attendance, Dr Hassan takes a full medical history.

From fear to dental phobia

A survey by the British Dental Association found that 25 per cent of people were afraid of visiting the dentist. As with any type of anxiety, there are varying degrees of fear. The most common, and least severe, is simply a fear of the unknown. This may arise if you’ve heard horror stories from other people or you’re worried about what could happen. The next level of fear is dental fear, which is a reaction to a known danger. For example, you may have had a tooth removed and experienced some pain. As a result, you may worry about experiencing it again. Dental phobia is similar to dental fear but is more severe. It’s often the result of a bad past experience.

Call us to book your Pollards’ presentation, please call 01924 373697

From everyone at Pollards, we would like to wish all our customers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

If you live in the Wakefield district and have a sudden eye problem such as red eye or a foreign body in your eye you can get this checked out at a number of opticians across the district.

24 opticians are offering the free, Primary Eye care Assessment Referral Service or PEARS for short. It means that on top of routine eye sight tests and prescription glasses you can now go to any of the participating opticians to get assessed and treated for a sudden eye problem. If the optician finds your eye problem is more complicated and needs a referral to hospital he or she will make that referral for you.

The service means you can be seen quickly, have your condition diagnosed accurately and if required, be directly referred to the eye hospital without having to see your GP first. And that’s all in the convenience of your high street. It also helps us to ensure more appropriate use of services in hospital.

We have all the necessary equipment & training to qualify as a PEARS practice, so if you ever have a sudden eye problem you know where to come!

The short & fun presentations include:

• Information about how to maintain good eye health
• Pracical demonstrations inlvolving all the children
• Some optical illusions!
• Signs to look out for suggesting you may need an eye test

Get a glimpse of what we do here …

Rowena Ibbotson, Optometrist at Pollards Optical, says, “This is one of the reasons we go out to schools and give presentations to children & teachers, informing them that children’s eye tests are free and should be tested regularly.

Rowena presents to Wrenthorpe Primary School, Wakefield

Talking to the children directly about their eyes and answering any questions they have makes them more interested in their eyesight, hopefully alerting their teacher or parent if they have any changes in their vision. All too often childrenhave poor eyesight but don’t know any different, and so it doesn’t get picked up until they are a lot older.”

Last year the consumer magazine used the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) to expose the number of PCTs in England failing to offer free vision screening to children of school age, and it has followed it up again this year. Of the PCTs in England, 49 (32%) failed to give a mandatory response to an FOI request, which has also risen from the 41 (27%) that failed to respond in 2009/10.

AOP chief executive, Bob Hughes commented: “The figures in Which? show what we had feared; that the situation was getting worse. What really counts is getting everyone around the table, orthoptists, ophthalmologists, educational representatives and optometrists, to make sure we put this right.