Going insane and need reassuring!

Im going insane and need somewere to vent this! Due to a very painfull extraction at an emergancy dentist 5 years ago i have never been back to the dentist. I have a bad cavity on one of my lower back molers and baisicly half a tooth left there, it has been like this for sometime but because of my fears of the denist i desided to wait untill it became painfull and yep it sure did! After a night of agony i plucked up the courage to get an appointment. As i guessed i was told i would need it extracting and my extraction is due in 2 days time. I am terrifed, its all i can think of. I called the dentist and told them i was so nervous and the receptionist said i should come speak to the dentist and they could maybe offer an iv sedation. My treatment will be on the nhs and im pretty sure it wont cover the iv? i am willing to pay extra if it will really help me but wondering how good this treatment is? Im worried if i get there and deside i need the iv sedation will my appointment need to be rescedualed? I dont think i can cope with anymore time worrying. My dentist is really nice and has great recomendations but i still carnt help but be petrified! Im scared of the injections, the pulling everything! Mainly the actual pulling as this is when i felt the pain last time, im having panic attacks just thinking of this.. PLEAAASEEE HELP!!

Iv sedation can be extremely effective I am sure that others will have positive posts.

Hey Rmx--

I know what you're going thru!! I had IV sedation once--nothing to it...one minute I was sitting there talking to the dental assistant and the next minute my ride is there to take me home..since I was still really out of it, I just went home and went to bed---it was really
ok...!! (I had oral surgery on the inside of my mouth last November)

Since then, I have found the most wonderful dentist on the face of the earth--but even with that, I have nitrous every single time I have even just a check-up. My dentist is totally ok with it. And I really, really like --no--- LOVE nitrous ...I told my dentist that because I wanted to be totally honest with her--and she just said no problem--that I couldn't get addicted to nitrous just from going to the dentist....so now, needless to say, I can't wait until my next appointment!!!

Oh, I forgot to add--I wasn't able to eat for several hours before the IV sedation. So, if that's what you decide to go with you should call the office right away and discuss it with them so it won't have to be rescheduled. That's all you need--just go through with it and go on with your life--you will be glad you did!!

I really think you will be fine!!

Thanks for the answers its good to know there are other people out there that have got through there appointments and are doing fine! Im hoping to be able to go through with the extraction without the sedation but i have a feeling nerves may get the better of me. Not completely sure if they do offer nitrous at my dentist as they dident mention it at all but im think if they do sedation they may have that also. My app is tomorrow at 2pm and i am sooo nervous but im so hoping i can give a sucsess story at the end of this! I will keep you all posted, Thankyou!

You're super lucky! Mine doesn't believe in Sedation dentistry =/

RMx said:

Thanks for the answers its good to know there are other people out there that have got through there appointments and are doing fine! Im hoping to be able to go through with the extraction without the sedation but i have a feeling nerves may get the better of me. Not completely sure if they do offer nitrous at my dentist as they dident mention it at all but im think if they do sedation they may have that also. My app is tomorrow at 2pm and i am sooo nervous but im so hoping i can give a sucsess story at the end of this! I will keep you all posted, Thankyou!

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The time when you had the bad experience, you should have stopped the dentist and demanded LA top-up. Infected teeth sometimes need much more LA or the LA placing in a different place using a different technique. Find a dentist who believes in maximising patient comfort during treatment. They can't always get the amount of LA correct first time and emergency dentists are likely often in a rush and less inclined to go out of their way than your regular dentist would be.

So in short if you are in better hands this time, you are likely worrying for nothing and you probably don't need sedation, you just need to be adequately numbed up because then it will be painfree.


If you anticipate a problem with getting numb because of infection, you can also take a course of antibiotics a few days before the appt. Tell your dentist what happened last time and that you want to avoid anything similar happening this time.
Nitrous is not that commonly available in UK except in the hospital environment and in the CDS. A minority of private dentists offer it.

Remember you can also try to get numbed up and if it doesn't work and dentist can't solve it, you can go away and take antibiotics then come back. You can abhort if you wish to. Agree a stop signal.