Frightened and Worried..

Hi. I have this one tooth that has caused me problems for ages now. At first, I broke it and tried to ignore it because, obviously, because I was scared of the dentist. My fear mostly stems from a very painful extraction I had when I was about 7 when I wasn't numbed properly but the dentist just kept on pulling regardless of me screaming and crying. AND he left little shards of tooth sticking up out of my gum and asked me to try to 'wiggle them out' which was painful in itself. My mum also has a fear of the dentist which comes from bad experiences as a teenager and the fact that her dad was also phobic. Dental phobia seems to be a family business for us

Anyway, back to my tooth. I eventually got it seen to because it was really painful and I thought that was that. But the filling came out and it broke further and became infected again. At this point the dentist decided to do a root canal. I was given a prescription for antibiotics and an appointment to come back. I somehow missed the bus for my appointment (an accident I promise!) and had to reschedule. My dentist was getting married so my next appointment was about 3 weeks later.
So I arrived at that appointment and she 'opened up' my tooth and there was still infection in there so she dressed it and sent me away. Same again a couple of weeks later. She got most of the work done on the root canal but one of the roots was quite painful. She said this meant it was still alive and she dressed it again and made me another appointment.

This brings us up to last week. A few days before this appointment I started to get a severe toothache. She said the tooth was infected, again, and wrote me a prescription for very strong antibiotics. She also said that at this point it might be the best option to extract the tooth. This scared me so much I lost my voice. I couldn't speak, my throat closed up.

Up until this point my phobia had been slowly but surely ebbing away. But this has brought it all back. All I've been able to think about is the horrible extraction I had as a child. I can still feel the pain and hear the noise

But there's another complication besides my fear: the tooth in question is a molar and the molar next to it is still a baby tooth. I never developed an adult tooth there so the baby one never got pushed out. The dentist said that if I have the infected tooth out, there is a strong possibily (ie. probably) that the baby tooth with fall out because there's nothing supporting it on that side and it has very shallow roots. Which would leave a 2 tooth gap on that side. Which apparently the NHS won't cover a bridge for. So I'd either have to pay private fees (I'm a student so that's a no-go) or not be able to eat on that side again.

So I'd made up my mind to ask her to try to continue with the root canal and hope for the best. Oh, I forgot one other complication (I know, right!!), the root on the tooth is crooked so she can't file all the way down so the root canal might not even work. But I think that's a slim chance.

Anyway, I've been on these strong antibiotics all week and my tooth still hurts The course finished yesterday and the pain woke me up about an hour ago. I have an appointment on Tuesday and I'm completely terrified. She said that if she extracts it whilst it's infected it'll be very painful because the anaesthetic wouldn't work with infection in the tooth. But the antibiotics haven't worked so I have no idea what she's going to do! Will she extract it anyway? There's no way she can continue with the root canal with it infected. I don't know what's going to happen and I'm so so scared

I know this was a complete ramble. If you got this far: well done, thank you, and I'm sorry! Any advice of what you think I can expect at my next appointment would be great

Hi,

Welcome to the forum.

Just a suggestion, Have you thought about posting your question in the:
'Your Dentistry Questions Answered' section.

There are friendly dentists in that section and if you are lucky you might well get a response from them before Tuesday.

Maybe you can copy or cut and paste what you have written in the 'Support' section and put it on a new thread in the 'Dentistry' section.

Hope this helps.

We've got a page on difficulties with getting numb: Can't get numb

Ask on Dentistry Questions but I don't think Gordon and ZZZ are in the habit of hurting patients when they extract teeth even if they are infected...I think they use advanced techniques/stronger/more anaesthetic/maybe even sedation to get them numb. Is your dentist newly qualified?

I know Gordon (NHS hospital based) gets patients referred to him from other NHS dentists who can't get them numb (and he can)....the point being that these NHS dentists don't just pull the tooth regardless of the patient's comfort level.

Obviously - don't let her extract it if you are not properly numb - you can protect yourself from a repeat of that. What does she think she is, a toothpuller at a medieval fairground?

Your absolute best bet would be to get your parents to pay for a private endodontist with sedation options but you are saying that's out of the question. A specialist in root canals is much more likely to have a successful outcome with your tooth.

I agree with Brit that your best bet would be a private endodontist (you can search for them on this website: https://britishendodonticsociety.org.uk). Even if this is more expensive in the short run, in the long run it may save you a lot of money. Is there anyone who could help you out with the payment or give you a loan? Apologies if that's not a possibility .

If you want to try that London one I did actually check his reputation out for myself with two other reputable sources a while back but he is at the more pricey end of what's available (has nitrous etc). I also found out that the Eastman Dental Clinic has a private endodontics clinic which was cheaper and you can get immediate appointments.