• 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.

First post, new to the forum

D

dano

Junior member
Joined
Aug 12, 2008
Messages
4
Hi all,

Don't really know where to start, so I guess I'll start from the beginning.

Last time I went to the dentist was about 22 years ago, I was 12 years old, and had a filling, without anesthetic, and it HURT, since then I have never even entertained the idea of entering a dentists.

In those 22 years I have suffered horribly with pain, sometimes for 2-3 weeks at a time, and even though at times the pain was unbearable, it was never as bad as the thought of sitting in that chair, totally helpless and totally out of control.

Yesterday I went to the dentist for the first time in 22 years, I was totally bricking it, and I have been told I need two fillings, and two extractions.

I am very nervous about this, although I am not having it done till October because I am away in Australia in a few weeks till then.

Basically, I am just after the usual type of support, tips and techniques for dealing with the stress and anxiety of having to go for treatment, is it worth getting something like valium to help with the stress of going? etc etc

Also, I am a runner, and I have a half marathon 3 weeks after my extractions, is this going to affect my race?

Many thanks.
 
dano,

I know exactly how you feel. I am a phobic myself and it is around 22 years now since I had any dental treatment. I can only say that these people on the forum are genuinely caring helpful people. I have even found a dentist, through them and at the moment I am strongly considering given him a visit.
See my posting on the support section under 'Please find me a dentist'
You are definitely not on your own as far as support is concered!
 
:welcome:


I think it is worth it to get Valium for it, the more relaxed the better.
 
Perhaps the best way for you to get the best ideas would be to go through and read some of our stories as they've gone so far! Feel free to look through my journal; I avoided the dentist for years because of fear too. But I've done it! So have many others whose stories will inspire AND inform you. It helped me immensely in the beginning just to read through others' experiences, and just familiarize myself with what things would be like and learn what worked for them to deal with the fear and stress of the situation.
Give it a try! And stick with us. We're very cool. :grouphug:
 
Last time I went to the dentist was about 22 years ago, I was 12 years old, and had a filling, without anesthetic, and it HURT, since then I have never even entertained the idea of entering a dentists....
, it was never as bad as the thought of sitting in that chair, totally helpless and totally out of control.
:welcome: It hurt because you were not anaesthetised...you were out of control..it was scary and painful and totally unnecessary...(I had 2 similar experiences myself at age 10) .....so you promise yourself that you will never let a dentist treat you like that ever again and you will insist on control....the key to this is realising that it is not supposed to be painful and if your dentist disagrees then you have gone to the wrong dentist...

Yesterday I went to the dentist for the first time in 22 years, I was totally bricking it, and I have been told I need two fillings, and two extractions.
Did you like your dentist? It doesn't sound like it...did you explain you were afraid because of what happened in the past so that they could offer you reassurance that it won't be repeated?
A problem shared is a problem halved as they say. You should be able to discuss sedation options with your dentist especially once they know the reason for your fears.
TLC and good comfy local anaesthetic delivery technique (perhaps combined with nitrous) could work fine too if you have found the right dentist for you long-term.

Also, I am a runner, and I have a half marathon 3 weeks after my extractions, is this going to affect my race?
Should be ok - your training schedule may get disrupted a bit though.:grouphug:
 
Hi there Dano.

Welcome to the forum and well done for getting to the point where you have actually managed to go for a consultation - I think that is probably the hardest part in some ways.

I too avoided the dentist for somewhere around 20 years - and my prognosis was quite similar to yours - two extractions and a couple of fillings. My dentist gave me two diazepam - one for the night before the appointment and one for the morning, and I must say that these were a tremendous help. I was actually able to walk in to the dentist's office for the treatment without feeling scared. Considering my anxiety had kept me awake and woken me up at night for years, that is no mean feat. So, I would definitely recommend having your dentist prescribe something like that for your visit. Will you be having IV sedation for the actual treatment or just gas and air? I had IV sedation which I again would highly recommend, but I have heard lots of positive stories about gas and air too - it all rather depends on your anxiety level and dentist.

After the extractions I had no pain and only took one lot of painkillers whilst sat in the dentist's chair immediately after the extractions. I would have thought that 3 weeks after your extractions you should be able to do more or less most things - I did in any case - but it's probably just best to check this with your dentist.

In the meantime - between now and your appointment - try and focus on how you will feel afterwards rather than on the actual treatment itself. Keep reminding yourself that you are dealing with the situation and try and give yourself some time off from the worry and stress.

CT
:)
 
Long time since my last post!!!, thanks for all the feedback, much appreciated.

Ok, where I am currently, last week was my first dental work since 1984!!!, and it wasn't toooo bad, 2 fillings turned out to be 3, but you know what?, it was ok, injections were ok, drilling hurt a bit, but the dentist said she'd wait a little for the anesthetic to take more effect, and after that it was ok.

One of my other fears, is flying, I recently had a holiday to Australia, and my doctor gave me diazepam to cope with the flight, after near 50 hours of flying, a lot of it in turbulance, I can happily say I am cured of my fear of flying.

Where this relates to me dentistry, is, I saw on the packeted info, that diazepam can be used for dental pre-med, so I used them last week, and I am using them this week, and I think they do help, although I did get a bit panicy and sweaty during last weeks work.

My extractions are today, and despite the diazepam, I am scared, I think it's fear of whats going to happen..........I just hope it's over quickly and painlessly.

my appointment is in 3 hours, so fingers crossed.....
 
Good luck for today.
 
Good luck. Hope it goes OK. xx
 
Sounds like you've come a long way :)!! Thanks for the update! Hope your appointment today went well :grouphug:
 
It's all done, was it easy?, hmmm.....yes and no....

I was VERY nervy, the dentist was very good, she knew I was nervy and told me everything she was doing, and if I wanted to stop, to raise my hand.

I am normally fine with injections, but the one in my top palette did hurt, no bones about it.

First extractration went ok, no pain whatsoever, but boy did she have to heave to get it out, there was a HELL of a lot of pressure, and she had to drill the root to get it out, but it was ok.

Second extraction was more problematic, even after 4 injections I was still feeling around the tooth, she said that there was nothing else that could be done to numb the area, so basically, it came out, and yes, it did hurt, although it wasnt that bad.

So it's done, I am glad its done, I won't relish the thought of more, because it isn't a pleasant experiance.

No bleeding, hardly any pain so far after 4 days, so it's looking good :)

Thanks for the support, very appreciative.
 
It's all done, was it easy?, hmmm.....yes and no....

I was VERY nervy, the dentist was very good, she knew I was nervy and told me everything she was doing, and if I wanted to stop, to raise my hand.

I am normally fine with injections, but the one in my top palette did hurt, no bones about it.

First extractration went ok, no pain whatsoever, but boy did she have to heave to get it out, there was a HELL of a lot of pressure, and she had to drill the root to get it out, but it was ok.

Second extraction was more problematic, even after 4 injections I was still feeling around the tooth, she said that there was nothing else that could be done to numb the area, so basically, it came out, and yes, it did hurt, although it wasnt that bad.

So it's done, I am glad its done, I won't relish the thought of more, because it isn't a pleasant experiance.

No bleeding, hardly any pain so far after 4 days, so it's looking good :)
Thanks for the support, very appreciative.

I'm glad you've got it over and done with and all credit to you but I don't think you've got the best of dentists there. They should not pull teeth if you are not properly numb...very few people report back that this happens.
If this has dented your confidence by being almost as bad as the original experience which caused your fear then I would strongly recommend going elsewhere for your continuing care. if you are currently with a UK NHS dentist, I'd seek out an experienced private one if I were you if at all possible..the last thing you want to do is not attend regularly and end up with more botched extractions.
A dentist with TheWand can do even palatal injections comfortably....I really hope you were almost numb....tbh I'd be tempted to complain...can you imagine a hospital doctor doing sth regardless of whether the anaesthetic has worked?
 
I think she did as much as she could, surely 4 odd injections is about as much as could be done?.
 
I think she did as much as she could, surely 4 odd injections is about as much as could be done?.
It depends whether they were going in the right place and whether your anxiety level was interfering with the effectiveness.....or what the cause was. There are advanced numbing techniques for hard to numb situations.....not all dentists are familiar with them. Again TheWand is good in 'hard to numb' situations as well according to Gordon. If numbing is an issue, some from of sedation is always an option.
It's a really dumb thing to hurt a patient knowingly when you know their fear was caused by lack of anaesthetic.
 
Back
Top