DentaltownUK Winter 2017 - 17

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Comfortably numb...
Dr Mike Deasy from Bushy Park Dental
remembers his ﬁrst experience with
The Wand computer controlled
anaesthetic delivery system.
Are you still scaring your patients by coming
at them with a BIG SYRINGE? If you are using
the traditional LA syringe to deliver your
anaesthetics then most likely you are! In the
mind of the Patient if not in reality.

needle that you have placed into the right parts
of your patient's anatomy. My initial thought
was that I had done that 'successfully' with my
hand without the need for a fancy bit of kit for
the last 20 years.
Surely I can continue to scare my patients as
much (if not better) than the next dentist; get
your coat, start the car! Having paid up for this
extra session I opted to stick with it and at least
get the 'free' glass of wine at the end.

No matter how good you are with your
injections, most of your patients (well at least
mine) still hate having THAT BIG NEEDLE.
Some years ago I attended a course on Local
Anaesthesia by Stanley Melamed. The day was
very informative and gave me the necessary
jolt to review and update my knowledge on
Local Anaesthesia for dentistry. About 20
dentists had signed up for the end of day
hands-on session and after a long day of
lectures I was somewhat disappointed when
I realised that this was to be a 'sales session'
for a piece of kit called The Wand.

It turns out that The Wand is simply a
computerised plunger that pushes the
anaesthetic solution of your choice through a

The exercise was to have a Dentist, who I had
never met before, give me an injection using
this Wand. I assumed a nice gentle buccal

The Wand has made
my working life a lot
less stressful while
building loyalty
with my patients

infiltration next to the upper 6; but no we were
going for delivering 1.4ml into the Palate, an
Anterior Middle Superior Alveolar Nerve Block.
Now the last time I had a palatal injection was
in 1982 when I had my wisdom teeth out. At
that time my fellow dental student told me
"we only need to put a few drops in, as this
usually hurts like hell". He wasn't wrong. This
time, with a pretence to bravery, I went first,
my partner, who had never used The Wand,
delivered the half cartridge or so of local into
my palate. To my (and his) utter amazement I
felt almost nothing, except after a few minutes
the sensation of a very numb palate and upper
left anterior segment. On reversing our roles,
it was payback time. I, again to my utter
amazement, numbed his palate without any
pain, a first for me also.
I had paid for my Wand unit before the cork
was out of that bottle wine. The 'free' glass
tasted of little at all, at least on one side.

So what is The Wand?
The Wand is a computer controlled anaesthetic delivery system and looks like a modern
piece of equipment, unlike an old fashioned syringe; bringing one of dentistry's last
remaining antiquated designs into the 21st century.
A foot pedal controls the computerised
plunger which in turn precisely controls the rate
and pressure of delivery of solution through the
single use handpiece. This controlled delivery
is what allows you to get your anaesthetic
to where it is needed without much of the
traditional discomfort/pain that is associated
with using a syringe.

remind me. However with The Wand there is
no longer any reason for my patient's (or my)
heart rate to rise as we get down to the
dreaded (no longer) injection. For the needle
phobic you can even convince them (with a
certain amount of camouflage / disguise) that
there is not a needle involved, at least not as
they remember it.

The lightweight handpiece is a harmless looking
15cm plastic tube that is held in a comfortable
pen grip, this provides an increase in tactile
sensation and control. Hence the appearance
and the name: The Wand. One of my patients
described it as a unilateral chopstick.

My patients now report that there is very little
impression of having an injection. Some will
only book their next appointment once I have
promised that I will only use The Wand and
never use a syringe again. I am happy to give
them that level of reassurance. The Wand has
made my working life a lot less stressful while
building loyalty with my patients, resulting in a
more pleasant experience for my Patients, my
Nurse and myself.

We can all 'sneak' in an Upper Posterior Buccal
Local Infiltration in without the patient
complaining, too much! The challenge is to do
the tight tissue areas with the same level of
comfort for our patients. I rarely achieved this
objective when doing the anterior segment or
the palate, as my patients used to regularly

Dental Sky are the exclusive UK distributor of The Wand

For more information please telephone 0800 294 4700,
email sales@dentalsky.com or visit www.dentalsky.com/wand-dental
Dental Sky Wholesaler Ltd Unit A, Foster Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 0SH Fax: 0800 294 4701 E-mail: sales@dentalsky.com

http://www.dentalsky.com/wand-dental

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DentaltownUK Winter 2017