Sign language suggested for dental patients

A universal system of sign language should be developed to allow dentistry patients to communicate with the person working on their mouth, it has been suggested.

US Harvard Medical School has suggested that the use of hand signals could calm patients who find visiting the dentist alarming and unpleasant, Dentistry.co.uk reports.

Such a system has already been developed by the firm DentiSign.

The founder of the company Raymond Cadden told the publication useful signals included a person gesturing their desire to scratch their nose or rinse their mouth.

Of those people who are frightened of visiting the dentist, Mr Cadden commented: “It was really their inability to communicate their needs that was the core of their dental issues.”

Bupa notes that extremely nervous patients may choose to undergo sedation when attending the dentist.

It lists the two main types used as inhalation sedation – or “gas and air” and intravenous sedation.