Numbing Dental Phobias
Marietta dentist offers treatment under anesthesia
The gushing thank yous Dr. David Kurtzman receives from his patients never get old to the Marietta dentist.
"It's the few times in dentistry you have people saying thank you and telling you how grateful they are for your services," Kurtzman said.
The difference in Kurtzman's practice? For those with dental phobias, he offers dental treatment under anesthesia. According to the Dental Phobia Treatment Center of New York, 30 to 40 million Americans are so afraid of dental treatment that they avoid it all together, like Buford resident Stephen Holman.
"I broke a tooth. It had a huge filling in it, and I grind my teeth at night. Over me years, it just cracked. I went to the dentist and just freaked out and got panicky when they were trying to fix it," Holman said. "They gave me Valium and tried it again the next week. That didn't work either."
Growing up in Birmingham, England, Holman did not have the greatest dental experiences as a child.
"I never liked the sounds of the dentist drill, and I had a lot of fillings," he said.
Holman lived with the pain of the broken tooth for six more months before finally being referred to Kurtzman. They sat down for a consultation and set up a time for Holman to catch up on his missed dental work. Wife Tammy Rich accompanied Holman as he checked into Kennestone Hospital for the out-patient procedure.
"It was slightly complicated because I had not been to a dentist in seven years," Holman, 37, said. "I had four root canals, six or seven fillings and a deep scale cleaning all in a day."
Holman said he was a bit nervous about the procedure being that he had never been under general anesthesia before.
"The nurse just said she would put something in my IV to relax me. I said 'Thank you.' Then I woke up," he said.
The dental work took Kurtzman eight to nine hours to complete, a process that would have taken six or more dental visits over the span of weeks to finish. A variety of procedures can be performed including root canals, gum work and bridges.
"Anything that can be done in a dental office, I can do in the operating room," Kurtzman, 47, said.
Portions of the dental costs are usually covered by insurance. Kurtzman said the hospital charges. averaging around $4,000, may or may not be covered depending on the type of insurance.
Dental work under anesthesia is not just geared toward those with phobias but also to those with medical conditions like severe gagging or those who can not sit in dental chairs for an extended amount of time, such as sufferers multiple sclerosis.
"Also this is ideal for people with heart problems or anyone who could be in danger during a dental procedure. If something goes south in a dental office, you have to call 911. The advantage of this is that there is life-saving equipment nearby," said Kurtzman, who lives in east Cobb with wife Carol and daughter Jessica, 8.
"When people do find me, it's because they want their teeth fixed, but they can't handle it being done in a general dentist office. They feel hopeless. They have already tried everything, and they are at their wit's end. Their greatest fear is of never getting care."
Kurtzman has heard horror stories from patients recounting their dentist experiences before they found him.
"One guy was thrown out of the dentist's office because he hit the dentist. Another threw up on the dentist," he said.
Kurtzman said he is the only dentist in Georgia to offer full-service comprehensive dental work in the operating room.
He said more dentists do not offer this option for a variety of reasons including dealing with the bureaucracy of hospitals and the fact that only a small percentage of dentists have experience working in an operating room.
While enrolled at Emory University, Kurtzman worked as a scrub nurse at Grady Hospital. The New Jersey native had hopes of being a physician, except he did not want to deal with the death side of physician work.
"Dentistry was a way of combining healthcare and art with people who weren't going to die." he said.
He wants people to find hope from his dental procedures.
"For every one person that comes in here, there are 20 people out there who don't go to the dentist. Most people, like Stephen, find out about us by accident. I want people to know there is hope and there are other avenues to dental care," Kurtzman said.
