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A Munich dentist is giving her patients an eye-full of cleavage to distract them from the pain and fear of the dentists' chair.
Dr. Marie-Catherine Klarkowski tells the British Metro newspaper she and her staff wear traditional Alpine-style "dirndl" outfits with revealing bust lines to help soothe patients' anxiety.
"The sight of cleavages gets patients narcotised and distracted from the pain rather quickly," she explains. The outfits also seem to help keep clients' jaws agape. "Some patients' mouths are already wide open on entering the practice."
Whether the strategy really minimizes pain or not, it's luring patients to get their teeth checked. The number of patients visiting the clinic, called Relax & Smile, has risen by a third since the staff adopted the new uniform, Metro reports. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they're all men.
A more effective pain-killer might be to bring your loved one the next time you visit the dentist.
According to a study from Stanford University, romantic love can improve your resistance to pain, Australia's Sunday Herald Sun reports. Researchers monitored the brain scans of 15 volunteers as they were exposed to mild pain from a heated device in their hand.
The volunteers had greater resistance to pain when they were shown a photo of their loved one, compared with when they were shown images of a friend. Researchers suggest this was because the brain releases natural painkillers in the initial stages of falling in love, the Sunday Herald Sun says.
But then, perhaps your fear of the dentist has more to do with the sound of the drill than the prospect of pain itself.
British researchers have designed a new device that masks the buzz of the dental drill, which studies have shown causes the most anxiety about dentists' visits, according to The Telegraph.
What would make visiting the dentist more pleasant for you?
Wency Leung