Dental Research / 18.02.2026
Why the Most Underrated Healthcare Visit Might Actually Be Your Favorite
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Freepix[/caption]
Ask most people to rank their healthcare appointments in order of enjoyment, and the dental visit will not be at the top of the list. It sits somewhere in the middle, usually described as fine or not that bad, often with a slightly defensive tone that suggests the speaker is trying to convince themselves as much as the person asking. The reputation dental care carries is unfair, and it is long overdue for revision.
Because here is what is actually true: for the majority of people, the modern dental experience is comfortable, efficient, and genuinely satisfying in ways that are hard to articulate until you have had a particularly good one. The technology has changed. The approach has changed. The conversation around patient experience has changed significantly. What has not changed is the outdated collective impression that visiting a dental professional is something to endure rather than appreciate. Closing that gap is simply a matter of paying attention to what the experience actually looks like today.
Freepix[/caption]
Ask most people to rank their healthcare appointments in order of enjoyment, and the dental visit will not be at the top of the list. It sits somewhere in the middle, usually described as fine or not that bad, often with a slightly defensive tone that suggests the speaker is trying to convince themselves as much as the person asking. The reputation dental care carries is unfair, and it is long overdue for revision.
Because here is what is actually true: for the majority of people, the modern dental experience is comfortable, efficient, and genuinely satisfying in ways that are hard to articulate until you have had a particularly good one. The technology has changed. The approach has changed. The conversation around patient experience has changed significantly. What has not changed is the outdated collective impression that visiting a dental professional is something to endure rather than appreciate. Closing that gap is simply a matter of paying attention to what the experience actually looks like today.
Table of Contents
Dane Kim[/caption]
Dane Kim, Dental Student
University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: This large study was inspired, in part, by a previous publication, Gustatory Function After Third Molar Extraction (Shafer et al. 1999), which examined the effect of third molar extractions on human taste function. Their work was based upon more severe extractions and followed patients only up to six months after their surgery. Studies examining taste function over a longer period, i.e., beyond six months from the surgery, were non-existent.
The Smell and Taste Center of Penn Medicine, which is the only center of its type in the United States, has a large unique database of patients who have been thoroughly tested for both smell and taste function. This provided us with the opportunity to compare data from hundreds of persons who had previously received third-molar extractions to those who had not received such extractions. Importantly, the extracts had occurred years before thee taste testing. 