M
Mugz
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2014
- Messages
- 1,034
- Location
- Anywhere but "The Chair"
Hi There!
I've been lurking on the site for a little while trying to work up the nerve to see a dentist for the mess my mouth has become. I avoid dentists like the plague and only go when I something is very, very wrong...like now. It has been 10 years since my last visit (I feel like I'm going to confession) and I am terrified to begin the process all over again.
After reading so many stories posted here I did call and make an appointment...which was really hard to do. Even harder was showing up but I did. Can't say I am very proud of anything past that point as the minute I walked through the door I started shaking and crying the instant I sat in the chair. I don't mean little ladylike sniffles and tears, I'm talkin' sheer terror silent scream cries, the kind that alternate between no noise and squeaky sobs of air. I must have been pretty pathetic because the poor hygienist teared up handing me tissues. Somehow she managed to get x-rays and the dentist came in just to look....but then started to tell all he saw. No extractions but several root canals, crowns, fillings, something with my jaw, something with my gums...the more he said the more I cried and I finally had to say stop, I don't really want to know today. He said ok, "Let's just start with a cleaning and do the filling and crown next as those teeth hurt the most right now...and here's a prescription for a sedative to take for those appointments."
My appointment isn't until next week but I cannot think of anything else. Moving the appointment up scares me even more. My heart races when I think about it, my hands shake and I want to cry....depending on where I am I will cry! I thought I'd feel a little better with the first one out of the way but I totally don't. I can't sleep, can't eat and can't get my mind off it. Has this happened to anyone else? What do you do to stop the scary thoughts? I do have nightmares - some of past bad experiences, some just weird nightmares of new possibilities. I have very vivid memories of three separate, consecutive incidents in my childhood with 3 different dentists that started the phobia and I actually "see" and "feel" basically relive what happened over and over very clearly decades later. Does that happen to anyone else? Worrying about upcoming appointments non-stop, vivid memories of past trauma? How do you stop it? How do you get through it? I seriously have chest pain!
I've been lurking on the site for a little while trying to work up the nerve to see a dentist for the mess my mouth has become. I avoid dentists like the plague and only go when I something is very, very wrong...like now. It has been 10 years since my last visit (I feel like I'm going to confession) and I am terrified to begin the process all over again.
After reading so many stories posted here I did call and make an appointment...which was really hard to do. Even harder was showing up but I did. Can't say I am very proud of anything past that point as the minute I walked through the door I started shaking and crying the instant I sat in the chair. I don't mean little ladylike sniffles and tears, I'm talkin' sheer terror silent scream cries, the kind that alternate between no noise and squeaky sobs of air. I must have been pretty pathetic because the poor hygienist teared up handing me tissues. Somehow she managed to get x-rays and the dentist came in just to look....but then started to tell all he saw. No extractions but several root canals, crowns, fillings, something with my jaw, something with my gums...the more he said the more I cried and I finally had to say stop, I don't really want to know today. He said ok, "Let's just start with a cleaning and do the filling and crown next as those teeth hurt the most right now...and here's a prescription for a sedative to take for those appointments."
My appointment isn't until next week but I cannot think of anything else. Moving the appointment up scares me even more. My heart races when I think about it, my hands shake and I want to cry....depending on where I am I will cry! I thought I'd feel a little better with the first one out of the way but I totally don't. I can't sleep, can't eat and can't get my mind off it. Has this happened to anyone else? What do you do to stop the scary thoughts? I do have nightmares - some of past bad experiences, some just weird nightmares of new possibilities. I have very vivid memories of three separate, consecutive incidents in my childhood with 3 different dentists that started the phobia and I actually "see" and "feel" basically relive what happened over and over very clearly decades later. Does that happen to anyone else? Worrying about upcoming appointments non-stop, vivid memories of past trauma? How do you stop it? How do you get through it? I seriously have chest pain!