K
kittiwake
Junior member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2011
- Messages
- 6
- Location
- UK
I hadn't been to the dentist for years, but recently was forced to go due to an abscess. I suffer from anxiety anyway, but have always been scared of dental work despite having undergone a lot of treatment over the preceding years. Anyway, the dentist (private) turned out to be excellent and I have managed to have deep cleaning, all my fillings replaced and a few of the RCTs redone. I felt proud.
The trouble is that the final part of the dental work is some upper incisor extractions (currently crowns on posts) then a big decision. But I've about reached the point where my anxiety is flaring up badly due to having over 10 appointments in the last 2 months - I've reached my limit stress-wise and it's affecting the rest of my life. The teeth currently have a temporary bridge on them and I'm under intense pressure to decide on the proposed treatment plan as the extractions are urgent apparently.
So I WILL have the extractions in spite of the fear, but the rest of the treatment plan is 2 years of very complicated orthodontics to get everything straight, including periods when I will have missing teeth in front. I also have an anterior open bite and am told that it will cause big problems later if I don't get it sorted (just to prod my anxiety a bit more).
Altogether this will relieve me of over £11,000, much of it up front. I've already spent over £5k this year that I hadn't budgeted for...
The dentist is reluctant to do a compromised treatment as he is a perfectionist, but I think I'll probably die of stress if I have to keep going to the dentist every 2 weeks for 2 years or more, plus the discomfort of ortho work. I'm not sure I can go the distance. I feel trapped.
I'm in my 40s and just want to be healthy - aesthetics aren't the top priority.
He has stated that he will very reluctantly do just the bridgework as is, but it feels like he would be offended if I don't agree to the ortho as he has done a lot of diagnostic work already. I don't want to ruin the relationship.
We have already had a long talk about it. I came out of there thinking "yeah I can probably do this", but as soon as I got home I thought "Pain + stress + £11k - what the hell are you thinking, woman?!".
Any thoughts?
The trouble is that the final part of the dental work is some upper incisor extractions (currently crowns on posts) then a big decision. But I've about reached the point where my anxiety is flaring up badly due to having over 10 appointments in the last 2 months - I've reached my limit stress-wise and it's affecting the rest of my life. The teeth currently have a temporary bridge on them and I'm under intense pressure to decide on the proposed treatment plan as the extractions are urgent apparently.
So I WILL have the extractions in spite of the fear, but the rest of the treatment plan is 2 years of very complicated orthodontics to get everything straight, including periods when I will have missing teeth in front. I also have an anterior open bite and am told that it will cause big problems later if I don't get it sorted (just to prod my anxiety a bit more).
Altogether this will relieve me of over £11,000, much of it up front. I've already spent over £5k this year that I hadn't budgeted for...
The dentist is reluctant to do a compromised treatment as he is a perfectionist, but I think I'll probably die of stress if I have to keep going to the dentist every 2 weeks for 2 years or more, plus the discomfort of ortho work. I'm not sure I can go the distance. I feel trapped.
I'm in my 40s and just want to be healthy - aesthetics aren't the top priority.
He has stated that he will very reluctantly do just the bridgework as is, but it feels like he would be offended if I don't agree to the ortho as he has done a lot of diagnostic work already. I don't want to ruin the relationship.
We have already had a long talk about it. I came out of there thinking "yeah I can probably do this", but as soon as I got home I thought "Pain + stress + £11k - what the hell are you thinking, woman?!".
Any thoughts?