My Journal

I've been a long time poster on the "Forum" side of the site - but wanted to chronicle my journal to where I am in the hopes that it will give me the willpower to carry on.

September 2011 - my sister (who has good intentions but can be overbearing - thankfully I will never let her read this) mentioned to me that my teeth have broken down to the point where she is concerned. She noticed at a family party the month before that things had deteriorated and she was concerned about my self-confidence as well as my health (evidently tooth decay may be linked to heart disease). I proceeded to blow her off and not follow through on any of her suggestions.

July 2012 - abscess on my upper right side led to a trip to the emergency room (for antiobiotics to make the swelling to down), followed by a trip to the dentist that my wife suggested.

August 2012 - after three visits to the dentist in a month (that I survived all of them) the dentist wanted me to make an appointment with an oral surgeon to have extractions done. At this point I completely freaked out and my fear of going under (and not waking up) led me to never make the appointment.

July 2014 - renewed concerns from my sister led to another phone call from her about continuing my dental journal. I expressed my fears over sedation, pain, etc. But I agreed that perhaps it was time to try again.

August 2014 - attended a seminar given by MALO dental for an All-on-4 procedure for permanent non-removable dentures. While expensive, my wife and I determined this was the way to proceed.

September 2014 - went for free consult at MALO that determined I was a candidate for the All-on-4 procedure.

March 2015 - went to MALO for examination and determination best course of proceeding.

May 2015 - went to MALO to have molds taken to prepare temporary dentures (needed prior to insertion of permanent dentures). MALO wanted to schedule appointment in early June for extractions, I did not make the appointment

August 2015 - my doctor determined that I have sleep apnea and wanted a sleep test done prior to surgery.

October 2015 - had sleep study done for sleep apnea

December 2015 - received results of sleep study and communicated same to my doctor

Wednesday, January 13, 2016 - contacted MALO via email advising I was prepared to schedule my appointment for the extractions (but I'm really not - completely freaking out)

Monday, January 18, 2016 - received email from MALO that extractions cannot be scheduled because it has been so long since my previous visit. They would review my file to determine what is needed to proceed.

Thursday, January 21, 2016 - received call from MALO advising that I need to have a bite mold taken prior to the creation of the dentures and the appointment for the extractions. They wanted to schedule same for Tuesday, 1/26/16

I replied via email advising that I cannot make an appointment next week due to my work schedule and gave suggestions for the following week.


So that is where I am to this point. As you can probably tell it is a tale of much hesitation and procrastination on my part (seeing the dates all laid out like that makes it even worse). If I had followed thru with everything two years ago it all would have been over by now and I would be happy and healthy. But that is not the way my phobia works - every time I even think about making an appointment or going for a procedure I get a pit in my stomach that threatens to take over the rest of my day.

I'm only 36 years old - as someone else said in their post, I would really like to be able to smile in pictures, not have to cover my mouth when I yawn or laugh and be able to eat all the foods I like again. But I'm really not sure if I can go through with this. I have such fear of going under for sedation and not waking up. Or waking up and being in tremendous pain. Or having some problem with the temporary denture that I look like an idiot.

I will update again if I hear anything about when my next appointment will be.

Update -

I know its been a couple days and I forgot to update over the weekend (ok, so maybe it was because I didn't want to think about it over the weekend).

Friday, January 22, 2016 - I was out of the office but received an email from the dental implant folks advising they were looking for alternate dates for me to come in.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016 - I have not heard back from the dental implant office and have drafted an email to follow up with them. I haven't sent it yet - I don't want to send it. I'm sort of freaking out about sending it. How am I ever going to go for the surgery if I can't even send an email?

Ok - I'm going to do it - I will be right back.

....


ok - sent

I will let you know when I get an answer.

January 27, 2016 - No response from my email from yesterday yet. I'm not rushing anything either so I haven't followed up with them again. Maybe they will forget about me...

January 27, 2016 - 3:30 p.m. - received call from the dental implant people (MALO). Obviously they are not reading the emails I'm sending b/c they want me to come in on 2/1/16 for the molds.

That would be fine - but last time I did molds they wanted to do the surgery the next week. I can't take time off for the surgery until March so I don't want to do the appointment for the molds until I know I can do the surgery for the extractions.

Feeling very frustrated.

Hiya Bigg - You're doing so well and have come so far from where you began. Give yourself credit where credit is due!

I recently had IV sedation for extraction - had no problems waking. Sure, I was sleepy and silly afterward, but also very excited that I'd done it, once and for all. I'm hopeful that your Doctor has approved you having sedation and that the Sleep testing was satisfactory for them (for you, really ).

Should you opt for sedation, you shouldn't wake in ANY pain - you should wake with a numb treatment area (for you, full mouth extraction?) ..and any post op discomfort after the numbing has worn off should be well treated with anti-inflammatories and prescription pain meds as needed. Remember that IV sedation is not completely being "put under" - my understanding is that you're aware enough to follow basic directions but you have retrograde amnesia response -- as in, even though you may have been aware enough to turn your head this way or that way while under sedation for the procedure, you won't remember a darn thing about it after you're in recovery. I've had IV sedation for a few dental and medical procedures and honestly remember none of them -- what's nice about IV sedation is that it is generally FAST acting -- as in, it wears off much, much quicker than GA and has a lot less side effects in general (such as nausea). Using IV sedation, you'll be connected to equipment that will monitor your vitals at all times - and as I understood it (From an Anesthesia Nurse), if anything goes sideways with your vitals, they can "turn off" the sedation VERY quickly and bring you to awareness.

Of course, don't take my word for it. Do talk to your clinic about your sedation concerns and they can explain their sedation protocols, drugs they use and the effect it has on the average patient.

I'll be checking this thread for updates. Remember that at all times, you have the control with your treatment. You're the driver and you can go as fast or as slowly as you want. No one, including the clinic, is going to chastise you for having anxieties about this procedure - I think it would be quite a bit less common (but not wrong!) if you DIDN'T have some anxiety.

Hi Deck2015

Since its kinda weird to have everyone keep calling me "bigg" or "bigg9058" - my real name is Nathaniel. Just to make it easier for everyone!

Thank you for your kind response. Its nice to hear from other people who have a similar phobia to mine and who have been thru similar procedures. My wife is very sympathetic to my anxieties (my sister who I mentioned, less so) but its not quite the same as talking to someone who has the anxieties on the same level that I do.

I'm supposed to be calling the clinic today to settle on an appointment - just that much is already freaking me out. But I can't keep living with the anxiety level I've been having this last week. I need to get this over with.

I think you can make the call - maybe you just ask some questions during this call about the sedation procedures, and don't schedule the appointment if you're not ready. Baby steps work for me - just a suggestion.

Mini-Update

January 28 - did not receive any response from the clinic regarding my appointment

January 29 - still not having received a response from the clinic, I called them about 1 p.m. and left a message to have them call me back. Did not receive a call back.

February 1 - sent email to contact at clinic to call me today. So far - no call back.

More Updates

2/1/16 p.m. - called the clinic and asked for my contact person - Angie - told she was on the phone and she would call me back. Did not receive a call back.

2/2/16 - sent email to Angie (again) at clinic requesting a call today. No response as of yet.

I am becoming increasingly frustrated with this whole process. I would much rather have the date set for my next appointment that continue to live in limbo like this. I know this is my own fault for taking so long to set the appointments before this but am also very frustrated.

Another update -

2/3 - (finally) received a call back from the clinic - wanted me to set a date for the end of the month to come in for the "labs" and then a date in March for the surgery

2/4 - returned call to the clinic and set date for the "labs" for 2/24 at 9:30 a.m. I'm not nearly as freaked out about this as I thought I would be. Maybe because its only for labs and not for the full surgery. I don't know. Maybe I just want all this crap done.

T-minus two days until my next appointment - wow, the last three weeks went really quick.

I just started getting freaked out again last night, which I guess is pretty good for me. Like I said in my last post, I think its because its only for the "labs," whatever that means. I'm going to call today to find out.

I fully expect my anxiety level to rise between now and Wednesday morning.

T-minus 1 day to the next appointment

I called yesterday and talked to the clinic about the financial side of things (have to make sure they get paid.)

For some reason I wimped out and didn't ask what "labs" I was coming in for tomorrow. I think I'm going to call back today.

I didn't end up calling yesterday to see what "labs" meant - so I went in blind today. Not the best feeling in the world, but what are you going to do.

Well, I survived another visit. After some good natured teasing about my long gaps between treatments the doctor who is going to do the full upper extraction walked me through the procedure and then proceeded to take pictures of my teeth (she is the first one in God knows how long - and for some of the pictures I had to use mouth stretchers. It wasn't painful - for anyone going in the future - but it was uncomfortable) and do some molds (the molds were sort of awful tasting but not scary). I even got to pick the shade of tooth my dentures are going to have!

Only speed bump at this point is that because it has been so long (over a year) since my physical, they want a new surgery clearance form from my doctor. Already made an appointment for March 10 to go for that. After that I am free to set up the surgery appointment.

So I am back to procrastinating again.

I had my physical with my regular doctor - two weeks late because I was sick early in March.

The dental place got my surgical clearance from the doctor and approved. Now I have to call them back to set my surgical appointment and I'm stalling.

stalling

Big steps today - I admitted to everyone at work that I'm having work done. (I've sort of kept it secret so far, mostly due to embarrassment.)

And, more important, I called and set the date for my surgery appointment. It is June 13th. So I don't even have to start worrying yet.

Worrying a little - 4 weeks to go!

Three days (a little less) to go (approx. 70 hours - but who's counting ;-)

I'm not as nervous as I thought I would be. I've done a ton of reading about IV sedation the last couple days and it seems like the surgery portion of this is going to be easy. Waking up and dealing with the aftermath, maybe not so much.

Doing my best to keep myself distracted and worry free over the weekend.

I'm under 24 hours until my procedure - full upper extractions and immediate dentures.

I'm sure I will be posting more as the night goes on...

Well hopefully in 24 hours it will all be over and I will be on my way home.

Well after much procrastination and a couple sleepless nights, I had my procedure completed yesterday. I had full upper extractions and an immediate denture placed!

My appointment wasn't until 2:15 yesterday afternoon, so I ended up sleeping in as long as I could and then watching mindless television until was time to go. My wife, Jennifer, went with me and she drove to the dentist's office (about 45 minutes away).

Once we were there we went into a small waiting room with a video about the All-on-four procedure on repeat. they were about 10 minutes late or so in taking me into the operating room. I had thought I was supposed to get laughing gas first, but that never happened. The monitors they put on me showed my blood pressure and pulse as really high (which I knew was nerves) but it concerned them.

They tried to calm me down for a couple minutes but then decided to put the sedation medicine in. I really don't remember much after that until I woke up with a mouth full of guaze. At first I wasn't even sure if they had taken anything out because the guaze made it feel like my teeth were still there. I have some vague memories of being taken into a recovery room where my wife was already waiting. I wasn't really feeling any pain at this point, just feeling disoriented and sore.

After a few minutes I was taken into an exam room and had the denture placed. At first that was sort of uncomfortable and rubbed my gums, but the doctor adjusted it three times so by the time that I left it was feeling pretty good.

They are absolutely right when they say to have someone drive you home, I was awake by the time we left but could NOT have driven a car. Even the rest of the night I was constantly falling asleep in and off. I had a milkshake for dinner and went to bed early.

The wife has been doing a great job of keeping up with giving me Advil every six hours on the dot and using the ice-pack so I have not had any pain so far. My mouth is sore (obviously) and the denture feels REALLY weird at the moment. I haven't tried eating anything of substance yet, so we will see how that goes later today or probably tomorrow. I'm also supposed to take out the denture later today and use a mouthwash they gave me, which I am not looking forward to.

I am also on antibiotics at the moment - but have not had any adverse reaction to those at all.

Further updates to come later.