Over the years, Dr. Rachel Forer has found plenty of ways to take the sting out of going to the dentist – laughing gas, numbing agents, and other modern tools designed to manage pain. But no matter how hard she tried, fear had a way of creeping in.
“Going to the dentist can be very visceral, a real fight-or-flight reaction,” said Forer, who runs Little Cloud Pediatric Dentistry in Lafayette.
That lingering anxiety led Forer to an unexpected solution, one that’s natural, non-toxic, and comes with four legs and a tail: Pearl, a five-year-old therapy dog who climbs into patients’ laps, settles in, and takes the bite out of anxiety…