Plucked up the courage to go to the dentist...

Hi All, just wanted to share a success story of mine, even if it was somewhat forced! I have had a massive fear of going to the dentist for years, probably 10-plus years. I'd think about it, maybe even book an appointment but would never be able to bring myself to go.
About 11 years ago I had a lower left molar with a crown on it, the crown fell out years ago but I was so fed up (it'd been re-done 3 times) and so scared of going back I couldn't bring myself to go so just put up with it and got used to it. As the tooth also didn't hurt, it made it easier for my fear to win and take over and I just never went back to the dentist. That tooth eventually decayed to the point where, 3 weeks ago I was in so much pain I had to book an appointment to go and get what was left of it it extracted. Luckily a friend at work had recommended Smileright dentist in my local Boots store, private not NHS so they're quite expensive but he said they are great with anxious patients and you can also always get appointments quickly, so I booked an appointment and went in and they couldn't have been nicer to me from the girls on reception to the dentist. The tooth was extracted without any issues, I didn't even have any pain once the injection wore off! I was so pleased with myself.
Unfortunately though it's like my body now knows I have a dentist I like and things are happening thick and fast. My lower right molar then cracked (I'd had root canal surgery on it many years ago that seemed to fail recently) so I had to have that removed last week and unfortunately developed dry socket. Now, I'm having pain in my upper right wisdom tooth so am (hopefully) having that extracted this afternoon.
While the dentist has had a few things to say about my teeth, he has generally been great, and I have a plan with him now to also re-do my old fillings.
I feel much more confident about going to the dentist now, my only regret being that I didn't do it sooner.

Thanks for reading!

That's amazing. My biggest fear is teeth extraction, so glad to hear it went well! But, what is DRY SOCKET? that sounds awful! My lower molar has cracked and its my first problem in years so i gotta go and do it! Thanks for the advice about Boots, having real issues with getting an appointment atm and was debating dental hospital.

Glad you feel less stressed, sometimes facing our fears is the best way forward.

lostinasia said:

That's amazing. My biggest fear is teeth extraction, so glad to hear it went well! But, what is DRY SOCKET? that sounds awful! My lower molar has cracked and its my first problem in years so i gotta go and do it! Thanks for the advice about Boots, having real issues with getting an appointment atm and was debating dental hospital.

Glad you feel less stressed, sometimes facing our fears is the best way forward.

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Dry socket is when the blood clot gets desolved or washed away from the socket and exposes the nerves and bones in the socket. VERY painful, but if you follow the instructions after the extraction, very preventable and actually quite rare. I think I got a bit cocky after having no pain from the first extraction and went back to work after the 2nd one and didn't give it the proper amount of time to clot. Lesson learned. Just back from having an upper wisdom tooth extracted, no problems, but I'm also now doing nothing for the next 24 hours to make sure I don't have a repeat