• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

OMG... sooooooo terrified!

S

speleojunky

Member
Joined
May 28, 2008
Messages
33
Wow! I am so excited that this site exists!!!!!

I am 34 years old and have severe dental phobia. My teeth are now paying the price for it. I know my gums are very bad, I have a lot of tartar and I need work done, but I am so scared. The ironic thing is, my cousin, who is the sweetest, most caring man in the whole world is a dentist and I'm still scared.

Right now, I'm mixed with panic attack type symptoms and deep regret, knowing that if I had gone regularly all along, I wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

I'm also germophopic when it comes to toothbrushes, so even though I brush everyday, I know it's never good enough, because the idea of this wet thing that was scrubbing my mouth and teeth is sitting there all day waiting to be used again, grosses me out to no end. Does anyone else feel this way too?

I just need moral support right now and encouragement to do the right thing. I'm afraid they are going to take out my teeth (they probably won't... lol) and I'm afraid of any work that needs to be done. I'd like to go to a dentist that sedates patients, but I'm equally scared of sedation!!!!

Can anyone share similar experiences and how it worked out? Does anyone have any relaxation ideas? I was thinking of playing relaxation music on my ipod and bringing an eye pillow so I don't have to see or hear anything. Has anyone tried doing that?

Let me know so I don't freak out completely and I'm glad you are all here for me!!!!

Thanks,
Sherrye
:hidesbehindsofa:
 
Hi there,

Welcome to the board! :)

For quite awhile, I was convinced that the only way that I would ever go back to a dentist was if it was sedation dentistry. However, like you, I was also wary of the sedation itself. In the end, I decided to see a general dentist because of my fears of sedation. (Lots of people have had great success with sedation though! It just wasn't the right option for me.)

I just had a root canal and four fillings last week and prior to the appointment, I was convinced I wouldn't make it through without freaking out and fleeing the room. When I got there, they offered to give me nitrous but because I'm also slightly wary of that, I refused. While the dentist gave me my injections, she made sure that I didn't see anything regarding the actual injections. I didn't feel a thing from the injections and subsequently, my treatment was 100% painless.

Lots of people on here use their ipods during the appointments. I was going to but the day of the appointment, I realized that the charger had come loose and that the battery had died overnight :)

Others have suggested bringing pictures of loved ones or your favorite places (or animal friends)to focus on during your appointments.

Remember, you're absolutely in control here. Your new dentist should be completely understanding and respectful of your needs. You should feel absolutely comfortable expressing your concerns to him/her. As far as treatment goes, your dentist should work with you to set up a treatment plan that you feel confident with.

We often tend to think the worst. I thought for sure that they would tell me during my first appointment that they had to remove all of my teeth, that they were absolutely beyond repair. When I told my new dentist that, she laughed and told me I was nowhere near that. Yes, I needed work but everything was salvagable and the only teeth I need to have removed are my wisdom teeth.

I never thought that I would go back to the dentist after the last time that I went five years ago. Now I can't imagine not going back (thanks to finding a great dentist and all of the wonderful encouragement I received here)!

You never know, you may just surprise yourself :)

Good luck and best wishes to you!!!
 
I think you'd be best going to your cousin for help, surely???? Half the battle is getting on with and trusting the person working on you....you probably wouldn't need full-blown sedation if he is such a nice guy as you say. OR he could maybe do oral sedation or nitrous if you felt you needed it.
This is always assuming that you believe your cousin to be competent as well as kind.
 
:welcome:! About sedation... Are you afraid of not being in control during the procedure? Valium or other not-superstrong anti-anxiety drug may be a good choise for you. You would then feel pretty normal, just less scared. Calm, relaxed, good. But 100% able to communicate and remember everything. Not asleep.

But you might be able to see the dentist without any sedatives. For some that is the better choise. My tip is: now that you've started your dental journey by writing your firs post here, don't stop. If you think "maybe tomorrow", you'll never find the courage. Now you have already done something brave, use this phase of bravery, find the right dentist and call. Before you start worrying more again. You've done the right thing, now go on and you will be :cloud9: soon when you overcome your fear. Good luck!
 
As Brit says, cousin might be the way to go but if the thought of that embarrasses you too much, you could ask cousin for a recommendation - am sure he'll know someone who could help?

Years ago, a friend of mine who was nervous (not as much as me but significantly), had his problem solved when his old school mate became a dentist and after he qualified, he just went to him for everything. I used to go out drinking with him when I was a student but because he was someone I knew as a friend of a friend kind of thing, I was too shy/embarrassed to approach him and ask about having my teeth sorted! So I understand cousin might be a bit too close for comfort, but either way he might know someone.;D

:welcome: by the way!
 
Thank you all so much for the replies! The problem with going to my cousin is more insurance. I don't have dental insurance which really stinks. I don't want to ask my cousin for any financial favors because he's helped my parents so many times when they didn't have insurance, and I don't want to take advantage. There definitely is the level of embarrassment also because he took such good care of me as a kid, (I never had a cavity) that I let all of that go.

However, there is a really good dental school near my house that I've been considering. They offer really low cost work and it's done by a 4th year dental student, with supervision by certified dentists. However, if you need to see a specialist, then you will see a certified specialist. Their services have a great reputation and their work is very thorough. Has anyone ever gone this route or know anything about it?

Sherrye
 
Not sure where you are. I have been to two dental hospitals in the UK but my experiences are so long ago, they're probably invalid!

The first (L***s) has given me nightmares ever since. To be fair, that hospital has a dreadful reputation locally anyway , always has had despite it having its own TV show at one point, implying the opposite! That was back in the late 60s, though - and I was a child. In those days, they wouldn't let your parents go in with you, and basically, ambushed you with a gas mask. The anaesthetic was primitive and made you ill afterwards. I remember the whole thing as a trauma but to be honest, I don;t remember ANY pain or even discomfort! And the reason it was scary is no longer applicable - modern dentistry isn't like that.

The second, in the late 1980s, in B---------, where I had the opposite experience. Everything seemed state of the art, and the dentist I saw for my extractions was lovely. As I had a heart defect, they wouldn't let the students work on me, only the professor, but my husband had a whole series of hygiene treatments there with a student and he thought the whole experience was brilliant! In 2000, I went back there as I had a lot of pain from a collapsing wisdom tooth and they no longer offered GA. The man who saw me (not a student) had extraction scheduled but I never went back as he was rude and abrupt - when I said I was nervous as I'd never had anything done let alone extraction, with LA alone, he snapped: *We're not a torture chamber you know!* Hmm. Lovely image to put in my mind. His English wasn't great which made me wonder if he realised how nasty he sounded, or was just genuinely a nasty piece of work. I was scared of getting him on The Day so didn't go back. Again, that was a professor not a student. Have only heard great things of students. My mate had treatment at a special phobics clinic there but that was 1989 - so many cutbacks since, I doubt that's still there. She had students some of the time and she had only positive things to say about it. When I asked this man about the phobia clinic, he looked at me as though I was a moron.

So I have had good and bad experience with professors and my husband had a great experience with a student. I suspect students are more likely to take their time, and be careful - esp if they're being assessed! Dental hospitals also can be very well equipped.

I share my negative experience not to scare you but to make the point that a lot of this depends on the personalities involved. And that's a wildcard whether you go to a regular dentist's, or a dental school. I think the odds are very good that you will have a good experience at the dental school - and if like me, you encounter an idiot - you don't have to continue being treated by them, presumably. (Another reason I didn't go back was I became pregnant in the couple of months waiting for my appointment to come, and then I started having a threatened miscarriage so I didn't fancy going several rounds with that bruiser, and also having LA whilst I was potentially losing a baby. I'd just lost another one right before, as well so it was a time in my life I could have done with TLC not abuse).

I hope that man no longer practices. He may have been great, having an off day, or since have improved his conversational English but I'm glad I walked out and didn't go back - just wish I'd found someone else, at the time not 8 years down the line!
 
Last edited:

Similar threads

shamrockerin
Replies
3
Views
884
Jackieallen
J
S
Replies
1
Views
1K
Sevena
Sevena
A
Replies
2
Views
1K
M
D
Replies
3
Views
6K
The cats thumbs
T
Back
Top