Abate, Dr. Kathleen, DDS

Category:	Dental
Address:	16655 15 Mile Rd
City:	Clinton Twp
Map:	Click to map location
Phone:	586-791-2100
Website:	www.mfamilydental.com

Dr. Kathleen Abate knew early on there was something about the way she practiced dentistry that set her apart. Call it a calming talent — an innate ability to relax her patients before procedures that many people find terrifying. Those insights were collected and shared in her book, 222 Tips to Eliminate Your Fear of the Dentist. Now, with anxiolysis — or “sleep-like dentistry,” as she refers to it — she believes she’s taken the art of soothing dental work to a whole new level. “People who are afraid of the dentist tend to avoid it altogether,” says Dr. Abate, who’s been practicing dentistry for 15 years, “and so, more often than not, they end up needing the kind of work that’s extensive, from root canals to surgery, because they’ve let it go for so long. So now they’re really afraid to get it done.”

The process is simple, but involves dedication. “When I have an anxiolysis patient, I block out the whole day just for that person,” Dr. Abate says. Patients take an orally admitted sedative that, within an hour, has them fast asleep. That’s when Dr. Abate and the team at Millennium Family Dental move in to do the work of cleaning and, if necessary, cosmetic and surgical procedures. Dr. Abate says she’s gotten rave reviews from the people who have received their care this way.

“The nice thing about it is that I don’t have to prescribe pain medication afterward,” she says. “When you’re sedated during dentistry, your body is relaxed. Afterward, patients find that they’re surprisingly comfortable. The next day they’re up, fine, and ready to go to work. They’ve had a pleasant experience.”
Even better, Dr. Abate says having that pleasant experience has led those same patients to opt for more regular and preventative maintenance down the line, and are open to more traditional methods of administering anesthesia, such as shots, because they have conquered their fear of the dentist. “It’s amazing to see that transformation,” she says.