Dental Office Soundproofing – Increase Comfort and Privacy

Different types of people have different types of feelings when it comes to dental visits. Some of us are excited to hear what a good job we’ve done over the past six months, and others are terrified that they have a whole mouthful of teeth that need extensive work. If we had a lot of cavities and fillings as kids, the dentist drill sound can still instill fear in even the bravest patients.

Putting patients at ease is key to running a successful practice. A great way to do that is by treating your office with sound absorbers and soundproofing materials to keep the noise down, creating a calm environment for both patients and employees.

Why is dental office soundproofing so important?

There are many reasons why dental and medical office soundproofing is a good idea. It makes your dental office a more comfortable place to work and have procedures done. It keeps your patients’ medical records from being overheard by everyone in the waiting room. It can even help keep patients and staff healthy. Let’s look at how such a simple solution can accomplish so much.

It keeps medical information confidential

Since the clients in a dental office also happen to be patients, it’s important to ensure their sensitive health data is kept confidential. Patient privacy is one of the most important responsibilities of any type of medical practice. In order for your patients to feel comfortable enough to be open about their questions or concerns, it’s important that the sound of their voice doesn’t travel.

By acoustically treating each space properly, we can keep conversations where they belong. With the proper treatment, voices don’t travel, they don’t echo, and the volume doesn’t build until people are shouting to be heard. We can speak at comfortable levels, knowing we aren’t announcing our hygiene routine to the entire office.

It helps patients cope with their fears

Lots of people feel some sense of anxiety or fear when it comes to the possibility that they may need their teeth drilled into, but dentophobia is much more intense than your run of the mill anxiety. It’s also known as a dental phobia, dental fear, and odontophobia, but they are all ways of saying a person is incredibly fearful of dental visits. 

While dentophobia represents a particularly extreme case of anxiety, the fact is, a good deal of patients are nervous about going to the dentist. Keeping dental sounds and other unwanted noises from reaching their waiting ears will help keep them calm as they wait.

It helps keep staff healthy

From the dentist drill sound to the screams of the squeamish, dental professionals who have worked in a dental office for many years are exposed to a lot of occupational noise. That exposure can lead to things like hearing loss and tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, as we age. Treating your dental office with acoustical materials can go a long way toward protecting everyone’s hearing.

Excessive exposure to noise also contributes to feelings of stress and anxiety, which can lead to a whole host of additional health problems. A dental office is not a great place for employees to get stressed out. Stress can lead to shaky hands and possible mistakes, so it’s important to do the little things that help reduce our stress levels.

How to corner conversations and silence that dentist drill sound

Now that you know a little bit more about why dental office soundproofing is important, it’s time to learn how to do it. While every space presents a different case, there are some basics inherent to the way sound works that will give you a good idea of how to start gaining patient comfort points.

Soundproofing vs. acoustic treatments

First and foremost, let’s look at the difference between soundproofing and acoustic treatments. When we soundproof a room, we limit the amount of sound that passes through walls and doors and the amount of audible or intelligible sound that can be heard on the other side. When we acoustically treat a room, we utilize sound absorbing materials, as well as sound diffusing materials, to keep noise levels down and keep conversations from bouncing around the room. Incorporating a balance of soundproofing and acoustic treatment materials is the best way to control the sound in your practice.

How to soundproof rooms

By adding mass and density to our walls and doors, we limit the amount of sound that passes through them. Also, any place where air can pass through, such as the spaces around doors, can allow sound passage between rooms. As a general rule of thumb, if air can pass through, so can sound waves.

When soundproofing dental offices, the most important places to focus your attention are probably the exam and treatment rooms themselves. These are where patients divulge private health information. They are also the places where we perform procedures with loud instruments. Not only will soundproofing the rooms make patients more comfortable about confidentiality, but nervous patients in the waiting room don’t have to listen to the machines that scare them.

How to acoustically treat rooms

Acoustical treatment is a little different. The sound absorbing materials trap sound waves as they hit the surface rather than bouncing back into the room. Absorbing speech sounds helps keep conversations private. The sound diffusers scatter sound waves, so they don’t reflect endlessly off all the hard, smooth surfaces that make up most dental offices. This helps reduce the instance of echo and reverberation, keeping the space quiet and calm.

The go-to solutions for sound absorption are acoustical wall panels and sound absorbing ceiling panels. These soft, sound absorbing surfaces keep sound waves from making it to the other side of the room and keep things confidential. Both wall and ceiling tiles are available in numerous finishes and colors and can easily be mounted to your walls or suspended from the ceiling. You’ll have no trouble finding something that looks great to make your hard surfaces less reflective to sound waves.

While wall and ceiling panels are fairly simple to move when you want a fresh look, they aren’t the most easily movable solutions on the market. If you want a more mobile option, quilted, sound absorbing curtains are a great solution. They are soft and dense enough to trap a large amount of sound, and they can pull double duty by blocking out the bright sunlight that can be a nuisance when performing procedures. Not only that but they can be used to isolate the sounds produced by particularly noisy procedures, protecting everyone’s ears from the damaging effects of the noise.

How to make dental patients comfortable

At the end of the day, the key to creating a comfortable environment is identifying what causes anxiety and doing something that mitigates it. While patients can feel uneasy about everything from the needles to the light shining in their mouths agape, the one fear we can really take meaningful comfort measures for patients to mitigate is that of the sounds of the equipment.

If you want your patients to start their visits in the calmest way possible, why not make your dentist patient waiting room soundproof? Even if your exam and treatment rooms are soundproof, the waiting room can be exposed to unwanted noise from a busy street out front or kids playing with toys and games as they wait. All these noises can increase stress levels and start their visits on the wrong foot.

Create a safe space

While you aren’t in the business of teaching your patients how to overcome fear of dentists, you can learn how to make a patient comfortable. By keeping the noise to a minimum, you will create an atmosphere of calm that quiets their fears. Take a serious inventory of your office and the noise problems you are dealing with. Only then can you create a plan to combat them. Don’t let that dentist drill sound drive patients out the door.