Lions and Tigers and Dentists...oh my!!

Thank you so much. I did it. I practically had no choice, this morning while brushing my teeth the damn temporary bridge broke in to two pieces and fell out of my mouth. There was no redeeming it at this point and so I knew there were no more excuses and compound cement that was going to fix this problem. It was kind of like God telling me to knock it off and just get it over with and so I did.

I was so nervous and frankly I still have the jitters. They were kind and patient and since I cant take anything for the fear I just white knuckle it...and boy are my knuckles sore.

They gave me three shots, and filed the teeth down, took the impression (I really hate sitting there with that tray thing filled with goop in my mouth) and then fiddled around forever in my mouth doing heaven only knows what and then he made a new temporary bridge to be replaced with the permanent one in two weeks. Of course he then proceeded to tell me the other things that still need to be done but I tried not to focus on what is left, rather I just tried to focus on getting this done and over with...ick...it never ends.

My mouth is really sore and I feel terribly sorry for myself. Our sweet Mugz texted me the entire time, helping to keep my mind off of everything that was going on...Thank you sweet, sweet Mugz!

I am going to take some Advil, eat some soup and then try to take a little nap. My whole body aches and my mouth feels like someone punched me in the face. Good times.

Thank you so much for all of your support...I am so thankful to this group. I really am.

FearfulInMA said:

OMG -- sitting at my desk at work in agony. Just took 800mg ibuprofen (which I'm not even supposed to be taking because of stomach issues) and 1000mg tylenol. If it doesn't help I think I may need to leave work early. I never leave sick. Ever. Tomorrow I will have to bring oragel and clove oil with me and take tylenol all day. I'm also working the overnight tomorrow night so it's going to be a very long day. The pain is really unbearable.

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I am so sorry you are in such misery. I read something the other day that kind of helped me a little bit..."Fear oftentimes makes people brave."

Pain also makes us brave. I am sending strength your way....

You did it!!!!!!!

SHE SURE DID!!!!! WAY TO GO MARTHA!!!!! You're probably too jittery and sore and emotional from the stress for the positive, overwhelming relief of having done it to wash over you yet but it will come....and then you can see today for the accomplishment it IS but may not feel like at the moment. YAY YOU!!!! We are SO proud of you, Martha....as you will be of yourself when the rain stops and the clouds part tomorrow. What a huge amount of work DONE...gone, check off your list. Yes you need to go back but this was a HUGE, huge hurdle...and you cleared it! I swear it was like the tooth fairy whispered your name in my good ear and as soon as my lunch break rolled around and I had a minute to text I did....and I cannot believe the timing!! SO meant to be!! I am impressed you could text with your hands shaking!! What a skilled writer! YOU MADE IT....YOU MADE IT....YOU MADE IT!!! SO PROUD OF YOU (((((( MARTHA )))))) healing hugs to you!!!

Hope you're hanging in there, Fearful!!! Countdown is to relief is ON!!! Did you get any rest at all?

As for Attack of the Abscess...well....it is a bit harder than you'd expect. Really. I won't go into details but suffice it to say the tiny pointed thing I used didn't quite cut it ... literally. I got it superficially but not the depth I was going for. Am a little too scared to try my mini exacto knife. I have one I use for detailed art things and it is really really tiny but I can't bring myself to use it - something about it being an actual knife that makes me nervous. WHAT IF I did something wrong and needed to go BACK to a damn dentist? How @$$ backwards would THAT be? So I'll give it a rest tonight. See if maybe last night's attack did enough to get some of the fluid out faster. I am so SICK of feeling, seeing, thinking and talking about it....it has become ab-scessive. (no booing that was funny....it was, you have to at least snicker.)

YAY Martha!!! A huge congratulations for making it through our appointment! You are one huge step closer to being DONE. And, so glad that Mugz was able to support you in 'real time' . You all are amazing!

Mugz, oh Mugz... I did chuckle about your 'ab-scession'. I do believe that I have a similar mini-exacto knife for crafty things as well, but I don't think I would want to use it on myself. YIKES! I know that you want relief though. Is it getting any better as the days go on?

And, yes, the countdown is on. 48hrs to go. I'm a little anxious (especially about going to an endodontist I've never met before), but I'm mostly just so happy that in 48hrs I will be numb and will never have to feel this awful pain again. This is super weird for me. Usually, by this point, I'm a total wreck. Maybe after almost 7yrs of regular dental appointments I'm finally starting to be a little less phobic? I'm not really sure what has changed except that I now have so much dental treatment that there are very few unknowns anymore. Or maybe it's that I've started to be able to ask more questions ad be more assertive. When I first started going I would pretty much dissociate so my body was there, but my mind was totally somewhere else. I've gotten to the point where I don't have to do that anymore to get myself through appointments, so this probably helps too. Anyhow, here's to hoping that the relative calm lasts and that I'm not totally freaking out come Monday morning.

Hope you all are enjoying the weekend!

Hope everyone is pain free today! I have been in my pajamas since my appointment yesterday. I came home and tried to nap but my mouth was so sore all I could do was lay on the couch and stare zombie-like out the window. Today was even worse. I haven't even brushed my teeth because I am too afraid it will hurt. Gross. I feel like I have been ran over by a garbage truck. Between my high anxiety and panic from being in that chair and just the process of going through any kind of dental procedure I feel incredibly exhausted. Even my bones ache. I go through this every single time I go to the dentist. My emotions and physical reactions are on high alert when I am in that chair, hence the afterglow of exhaustion. It also makes me incredibly sensitive/weepy afterwards. Even though everyone tells you how happy you should be, and how great you did, you still feel this sense of violation and trauma. At least I do.

Last night while lying in a catatonic state on the couch I was trying to figure out a cure for this fear, some sort of solution where we could at least be able to cope with these visits, maybe not enjoy them but at least maintain some sort of emotional equilibrium. I came up with nothing. Instead, I found myself focused on the bone rattling trauma of grinning and bearing it (putting it lightly) until the procedure is finished and we can run like jackrabbits out the door. I simply do not understand why there haven't been more advances in dentistry. I don't mean implants and whitening. I am talking about the uncomfortable chairs tilted practically horizontal, the painful injections that leave your gums raw, the drilling, poking, prodding and the implements of torture. I recognize that we no longer sit in the back of a covered wagon, swig whiskey and endure a pair of pliers but what is now available still feels archaic.

The cost is absolutely ridiculous too, even with insurance. This stupid bridge has cost me over two thousand dollars.

I just feel bad for all of us. I can understand the frustration Mugz feels when she fantasizes taking a knife and surgically searches for a solution that has lasted months!

I am sorry to be such a downer tonight. I just hate teeth.

Hi Martha

Don't apologise about feeling the way you do, I'm just glad you are recovering from the experience (albeit slowly).

I used to feel exactly the same about "The Chair" until I started with my current dentist, all the "Chairs" I had experienced prior to this were in my opinion designed to make life easier for the dentist and not for comfort. This latest one has been a departure from this, it's just so comfortable, a piece of furniture I can sink into, it helps that my dentist reclines it nice and slowly and moves the headrest manually to achieve maximum comfort level.

I used to hate and detest going to the dentists office, the almost interminable wait in the cavernous, soulless waiting area with the tall barrier of the reception desk followed by the dreadful walk to "The Chair" (that might as well have been the walk to the Gallows). I'm just amazed at how getting rid of that awful previous place of terror has been replaced by (almost) looking forward to going.

I think it's not so much the advances in treatment it's the approach that some dentists (like mine) have taken - they have looked at the whole experience from a patients perspective from walking through the door, through hand picked, sympathetic, empathetic professional staff, great environment, excellent chairside manner, Skilled, pain free techniques to walking out the door with all the information to empower us as service users. Technology and advances in materials are great but without the "soft skills" they don't help us as potentially phobic patients.

Hoping you are able to get to at least being able to get through treatment unscarred but ideally in that dental Nirvana which is where I am now and would have never thought possible 6 months ago.

Kind Regards

Spike 1969 said:

Hi Martha

Don't apologise about feeling the way you do, I'm just glad you are recovering from the experience (albeit slowly).

I used to feel exactly the same about "The Chair" until I started with my current dentist, all the "Chairs" I had experienced prior to this were in my opinion designed to make life easier for the dentist and not for comfort. This latest one has been a departure from this, it's just so comfortable, a piece of furniture I can sink into, it helps that my dentist reclines it nice and slowly and moves the headrest manually to achieve maximum comfort level.

I used to hate and detest going to the dentists office, the almost interminable wait in the cavernous, soulless waiting area with the tall barrier of the reception desk followed by the dreadful walk to "The Chair" (that might as well have been the walk to the Gallows). I'm just amazed at how getting rid of that awful previous place of terror has been replaced by (almost) looking forward to going.

I think it's not so much the advances in treatment it's the approach that some dentists (like mine) have taken - they have looked at the whole experience from a patients perspective from walking through the door, through hand picked, sympathetic, empathetic professional staff, great environment, excellent chairside manner, Skilled, pain free techniques to walking out the door with all the information to empower us as service users. Technology and advances in materials are great but without the "soft skills" they don't help us as potentially phobic patients.

Hoping you are able to get to at least being able to get through treatment unscarred but ideally in that dental Nirvana which is where I am now and would have never thought possible 6 months ago.

Kind Regards

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Wow Spike, what an excellent testimony! I want your dentist. I am so thrilled you are able to have such a positive experience!

No need to apologize Martha! I sent you a message, but also wanted to say that sharing our fears and experiences is what this forum is for.

My appointment is about 30 hours from now and I continue to remain relatively anxiety free. I just keep thinking that it will hit at any moment, but I'm cautiously optimistic that maybe it won't. My tooth is causing me such grief right now that I just can't wait to not be in pain any longer.

I may check in again before my appointment tomorrow, but if not, I'll report back tomorrow to let you all know how it went.

EDIT: Evidently I can't tell time, appointment is in 12 hrs

Good luck Fearful, just keep your eye on the prize which is RELIEF!!!!!!!!!! That's what i kept telling myself as I had my treatments.

Also I broke things up into blocks of time. Like, driving there. Getting out of the car. Getting in the office. Getting in the chair. etc, etc.

FearfulInMA said:

No need to apologize Martha! I sent you a message, but also wanted to say that sharing our fears and experiences is what this forum is for.

My appointment is about 30 hours from now and I continue to remain relatively anxiety free. I just keep thinking that it will hit at any moment, but I'm cautiously optimistic that maybe it won't. My tooth is causing me such grief right now that I just can't wait to not be in pain any longer.

I may check in again before my appointment tomorrow, but if not, I'll report back tomorrow to let you all know how it went.

EDIT: Evidently I can't tell time, appointment is in 12 hrs

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Thinking about you today and hoping things are working out well! Let us know how it went!

Good luck Fearful! Can't wait for the report of your success Xxxxxx

update???

Thanks all for checking in! I'm in the middle of my long work day (on Mondays I work all day and then at my second job 6p-midnight). So I just have time to write a quick update for now, but will post a longer one later on my thread. The short update is that I survived. I did have some anxiety last night and this morning, but I figured out a strategy to manage it (I promise to write more about this later -- it may make some of you laugh). The new endodontist was very nice (and not creepy) and I didn't feel anything (except when he insisted on testing the damn tooth again). I've been pretty sore the rest of the day, but I'm hoping that I will feel much better by tomorrow. I know I have to call my regular dentist to schedule an appointment for the permanent filling, but I think I just need a couple of days of not thinking about teeth before I can do that

Thank you all for your support -- I could feel all of your good energy with me this morning.

Has anyone heard from Mugz in the last couple of days? I'm hoping that the abscess didn't strike back! Please let us know how you're doing.

Take good care.

I'm here!
The abscess is getting smaller for sure. YAY. One victory. It hasn't really attacked back...directly anyway. I had migraines this weekend and have been laying low. Definitely have something sinus/head related going on that started with this stupid abscess. I just get so discouraged that it has taken so long to get a handle on ONE tooth....just one. I have TEN as in 10 more that need serious work....4 of them are molars needing "pulp caps" under fillings. I'm afraid two of those are going to end up with root canals and crowns before I'm done as they are hurting more than the rest and I am trying to ignore them until January. How can I encourage others when I detest and fear dentistry now more than ever having spent June, July, August, Sept, and Oct stalling out treating one stupid tooth - I look and feel like a hypocrite.

Hi Mugz

I can not believe the amount of suffering you are having to endure. You must be totally at the end of your tether now. I know I would be losing it. How are you now? I am trying to catch up on everyones posts whilst I have been away but wanted to just drop by and say hi to you and everyone else posting on your thread.

Miss P

Mugz I had a deep cavity that has a filling and a pulp cap. much preferable to a root canal.

You're not a hypocrite. But you should follow your own advice :hugs:

Get the fillings before they turn into root canals!!!

Mugz -- you have every reason to detest and fear dentistry at this point. We are all here for you and you are NOT a hypocrite. You are doing all that you can manage to do to get this all taken care of, but your tooth just does not seem to be cooperating. You WILL get through all of this. And, you know that the sooner you get it all taken care of the easier it will be in the long run. Perhaps having some successful/painless dental work is what you need right now?

Miss P -- so nice to 'see' you -- hoping you had a lovely trip!

My next appointment (and hopefully last for a while) will be next Wednesday for a permanent filling for the tooth that was just RCT'd. It will be with my regular dentist so that should cut down on the anxiety. Hoping to minimize the pre-appointment anxiety until then.