单选题
Questions 57 to 60 are based on the following passage:
More people than ever before are now going to dentists’ office, but half of the United States population will not see a dentist. The reason is quite simple. As most dentists believe, they are scared. And really, what experience is worse than seeing a traditional dentist? You wait in silence, thumbing through old magazines, in a sterile white waiting room in which no one ever speaks. All is silent until an assistant calls your name and leads you back to another white room, this one filled with machinery to frighten you still further.
At the Medical College of Georgia, dentists are taught principles of behavior and techniques of office design that should help reduce the patient’s anxiety and tension. Assistants and receptionists are taught to smile and speak to the patient. This helps create an atmosphere of trust. Dentists themselves are being taught to communicate more fully with the patient. A phrase such as "you’re doing fine" tells the patient that the dentist is appreciative of the patient’s predicament. These phrases also help by rewarding the tolerance of pain.
Dentists’ offices are being repainted in "earth tones," brown, green, tan and other soothing colors. A startling color such as red should be avoided at all costs; red brings to mind blood and pain. Paintings and other distractions are strategically located; music is piped in to help the patients ignore his or her pain. Until recently, dentists had ignored the fact that most patients never see much more than the ceiling of the practice room. Most of the time, patients are lying flat on their backs with little to busy their minds other than their pains. Now dentists are not only building ceilings with fancy patterns, but also distracting their patients with ceiling TV set, computer games and mazes, and mobile sculptures. One quick technique involves
placing mirrors so patients can distract themselves by watching fish in a tank located near the ceiling.
Less drastic changes include redoing the practice rooms to include less of the sterile color white and redesigning the machinery a dentist must use to make it appear less frightening. Uniforms are also being made in pastel and earth colors, no longer in white. Some dentists go much further. They take an active role in teaching their patients to relax; some are teaching their patients deep muscle relaxation and breathing control. Some use advanced techniques, such as hypnosis and biofeedback to help their patients relax in the chair. Drugs and painkillers may still be used to ease physical pain, but all these techniques of relaxation help the patient relax and avoid anxiety over their pain.