ADA General Meeting "Understanding and managing anxiety in dental patients" with Dr Tony Fernando

 In association with:

"Understanding and managing anxiety in your patients".

Anxiety is a normal emotional state that we experience to deal with threats and uncertainty.

Severe or pathological anxiety comes in different forms, from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Phobias.

A specific type of anxiety that dentists have to contend with is dental anxiety which affects around 20% of the population. A more severe type of dental anxiety is dental phobia which afflicts 5% of the general population.

This presentation will discuss anxiety in general, evidence based interventions, and specific treatments for dental anxiety.

About our speaker:  Dr Antonia Fernando

Tony is a consultant psychiatrist and a senior lecturer in Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland. He is in the final stages of his PhD at the University of Auckland, studying barriers to compassion in medicine.

Tony’s research interest is in sleep medicine, medical compassion and physician wellbeing. He conceptualized and helped develop the CALM website (calm.auckland.ac.nz).   He obtained his medical degree from the University of the Philippines. His internship was at St Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital (Columbia University) in New York. His psychiatry residency and sleep fellowship was at the University of Pennsylvania.

He has published in numerous local and international journals including the BMJ (British Medical Journal). He trains local and international doctors in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders. He was won many awards from medical students and the sustained teaching excellence award from the faculty of medicine in Auckland.

In 2012, he was awarded by President Aquino of the Philippines for his services to sleep medicine and medical education.  In 2015, he was awarded the Chair’s award by the New Zealand Medical Association, the highest recognition given by the association to any doctor in New Zealand for his work on physician wellbeing. He organizes weekly mindfulness meditation sessions at Auckland Hospital and annual retreats on mindfulness training for medical students and clinicians.  He is a wellbeing expert of TV shows including One News, The Project, Seven Sharp, and Breakfast at TVNZ.

He plays the cello, is a cheap-eats foodie and despite his fear of the water, has swum across the Auckland Harbour three times and competes in ocean races.

In January of 2017, he was ordained as a Buddhist monk in Chanmyay Myaing monastery in Myanmar where he furthered his training in compassion meditation.   More recently, he started a weekly mindfulness and emotional balance programme for inmates at Mt Eden Correctional Facility in Auckland.