I've been through a lot of heavy dental work. I've been in such chairs for hours, my jaw held open with metal apparatus, anesthetics working on me, drills and grinders making smoke, and all the while I'm required to remain still. Anyone that has experienced this has absolutely no question in their mind about the value of an elaborate, comfortable dentist's chair.
If anything they could be better. Larger, specifically. Some of us are tall and it seems the designers of these chairs are unaware that people can grow beyond 5'10".
I sat in a dentists chair in South America with my mouth held open for an entire working day once before, with a 1 hour break so the dentist could have lunch.
Aside from that, I had another bad experience with a horrible dentist who refused to give me enough anesthesia. What a delightful man he was....
I hated going to the dentist before those experiences, so you can imagine how bad it is now - the sound of the tools, the burning smells, and the sensations against my teeth... makes me physically cringe thinking about it.
When I'm in the chair I just completely tense us - it might as well be a bed of nails for all I care; actually, that might even help keep my mind off it :)
What has helped me is gas. I can talk I can talk in front of a lot of people, socialize, etc. Having a dentist growing up who was more jigsaw than dentist caused some ptsd for me and now I have a great dentist and the gas has helped me calm down so much. Just had a root canal and had to go back 6 times and each time it was fine. The chairs are all pretty uncomfortable all things considered.
I had a root canal just yesterday and also have some ptsd from bad procedures when I was younger. What has helped me is mindfulness meditation and bringing some sort of fidget/distraction thing to keep in my hands.
My endodontist's chairs have massagers in them, which is also a nice distracting/calming sensation.
Every time I've considered gas, I've chickened out because I get scared that I'll be left in some half incapacitated paralyzed state or something. Irrational paranoia, but it is what it is.
Try the gas next time. The first time they had it turned up too much and I was beginning to float to heaven but after that it’s been just what I need. A small dose and I relax into the chair.
Is this some US only thing? I had gas once as a child in the UK in the early 1960s. I haven't heard of anything similar being used in many decades except in hospitals for really serious dental surgery of a kind that isn't done by ordinary dentists.
For ordinary fillings, fitting crowns, and so on I don't usually have any anaesthesia at all any more. This is not because I am immune to pain but because my dentists are good enough to not cause any. This is in Norway, perhaps they are better trained or have a different attitude to the US and UK?
It’s a US thing. My dentist is very good and the topical numbing stuff they use is powerful enough to not feel the needle going in. But gas is available to help those with phobias or anxiety.
Even most US dentists are reluctant to use it in my experience. Ours has it in the back corner, though. My wife likes to get a whiff before the numbing injections so that the injections don’t hurt so much. It helps with the anxiety, as you say. I don’t think it is as effective at blocking procedure pain as the more modern anesthetics.
My Norwegian dentist, on the rare occasions that he uses any numbing injection, drips some on the injection site first then as he pushes the needle in he also pushes the plunger down. He takes it very slowly so that the only discomfort is the physical effort of holding my jaw still against the pressure.
A big contrast to butcher who did my last filling in the UK before I emigrated.
If anything they could be better. Larger, specifically. Some of us are tall and it seems the designers of these chairs are unaware that people can grow beyond 5'10".