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My Dental woes continue...

G

GrahamDee

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 11, 2009
Messages
523
Location
Hampshire, England
Three weeks ago, I had a failed extraxction. Nerves and absolute sheer terror meant my dentist gave up on trying to pull out a molar which had a failed root filing and had abcessed. I was to be referred to a clinic to have IV sedation, but all this time, I have heard nothing. I called the dentist today to see what's happened and she is chasing up a consultation for me.
About an hour later, I was eating a cereal bar and a lump snapped off another tooth, upper left molar. I can feel it, but it doesn't hurt, although it is sensitive to cold. Now I'm living in fear I may have to have this one out as well - I have made an urgent appointment for tomorrow to get this looked at.

I can tolerate most dental treatment - but I am a total hopeless and complete phobic when it comes to extractions. To be honest, there are few times in my life I have never been as terrified as I was during my last session and now I'm shaking and losing sleep that I may have to have two out instead of one. When I finally do get to go for my extraction, its going to take a lot of willpower for me to even turn up. let alone endure it - as I'm scared I will still feel it and be helpless to say anything under IV. (I still had some feeling in my tooth during my aborted extraction and had I gone all the way with it, I think it may have been agony).

Now I can't think straight and don't know what to do. :cry:
 
Hello Graham :) I've written long posts twice and they've managed to delete themselves (laptop is a little dodgy) so please bear with me.

I'm sorry to hear that you're sad :shame:

You can get through this, whether it's through a little thing like listening to some music to take your mind to another place, or through a big step like talking to your dentist or looking for a new one.

Something I find that helps is talking to your friends about your fear. Sure, they haven't had the same experience as you, but chances are that they know what it's like. A few months ago, I told a few of my work colleagues why I needed to head out of the office for half an hour - turns out most of the office hated the dentist as much as I do! And those who don't will undeniably be afraid of something - spiders/graveyards/heights....

I know talking about these things in conversation sounds difficult but having the support of others and the ability to joke about fear makes the whole thing seem normal and much less scary :XXLhug:
 
Three weeks ago, I had a failed extraxction. Nerves and absolute sheer terror meant my dentist gave up on trying to pull out a molar which had a failed root filing and had abcessed. I was to be referred to a clinic to have IV sedation, but all this time, I have heard nothing. I called the dentist today to see what's happened and she is chasing up a consultation for me.
About an hour later, I was eating a cereal bar and a lump snapped off another tooth, upper left molar. I can feel it, but it doesn't hurt, although it is sensitive to cold. Now I'm living in fear I may have to have this one out as well - I have made an urgent appointment for tomorrow to get this looked at.

I can tolerate most dental treatment - but I am a total hopeless and complete phobic when it comes to extractions. To be honest, there are few times in my life I have never been as terrified as I was during my last session and now I'm shaking and losing sleep that I may have to have two out instead of one. When I finally do get to go for my extraction, its going to take a lot of willpower for me to even turn up. let alone endure it - as I'm scared I will still feel it and be helpless to say anything under IV. (I still had some feeling in my tooth during my aborted extraction and had I gone all the way with it, I think it may have been agony).

Now I can't think straight and don't know what to do. :cry:
Graham - I don't know if you are in the UK or not? But you mention being referred for IV sedation, but hearing nothing.

The same thing happened to me for getting on for two years. My dentist assumed there was a year-long wait for the NHS treatment - then said perhaps they have a 'quota' in each year. Then I was told to ring the sedation clinic myself. I did this and they had my referral there - I really don't know why they'd never contacted me, and I wasn't in the mood to chase them myself. But inside a couple of weeks I arranged a date to suit me and on Thursday I'm having three wisdom teeth out.

I'll let you know how it goes. But from what I read on here, it sounds just the thing for dental phobics. If it goes OK for me, perhaps it'll make you feel better? I hope so.
 
Thanks to all for responding, I do appreciate everyones comments.

I am in the UK and I assume my delays are down to someone messing up appointments or such. My current thoughts are if I don't get anywhere with this soon, I'm going to dip into my wallet and go private and get this little monster out of my head one way or another - which I guess will put me in the driving seat with regards to sedations or whatever.

I made an emergency appointment on Friday to get this cracked molar looked at and my heart only slowed down a little when the dentist (a relief one) decided that it can be saved and no extraction was necessary. However, when he was probing around with that hooky pointy thing right inside the hole, I was on the edge of fainting as I waited for my head to explode in pain and a GrahamDee-shaped hole would suddenly appear in the ceiling above him. Fortunatly, there was nothing and he plugged it with some gunky cement and tomorrow I'm going back for a pernament filing. Now its just a routine fill, my anxiety level has dropped down several points at least to a level which will not cost me any sleep.

Just don't mention the "E" word. :o
 
hello there! ,
im supprised you are having as much trouble with the sedation, a few years back i was having treatment under sedation as i cannot bear injections in my mouth, this was done in the dentists surgery , there was no refferal and the only thing i had to do was pay a deposit as the appointment would be over an hour!
with regards to feeling anything under sedation, i never felt any pain whatsoever! my first appointment lasted an hour and a half , i felt asthough id been there 10 minutes! It really is wonderful, its a lovley relaxed feeling and my dentist assured me its quite possable to even fall asleep!.
good luck!!!!:grouphug:
 
IV sedation on the NHS doesn't seem to be available, at least not here where I live (Nottinghamshire) so I'm having to go privately to have four teeth extracted (sorry Graham, that e word!) on Wednesday.
Total cost will be £460...... :o
£80 per tooth & £140 for the IV. The high cost I'm told is because there has to be two dentists present plus the anaesthitist.


Paul.
 
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I'm not entrely sure if this referral will be NHS or not - I'm still waiting for my consulatation, which is supposed to be "in the post".

Regardless, I am convinced IV is the way for me, I simply cannot have extractions any other way, except maybe GA (which would be my preference), or get forcibly stapped down into the chair by a big nurse and the dentist pulling at me with his knee on my chest!!;D;D

Seriously, if this is private, I am at a stage where I am prepared to pay the money. I shall see what happens in the next week or so.

Meanwhile, I have just come back from a half-hour in the dreaded chair and almost had a pleasent experiance. My broken molar had a filling - to be more accurate, the existing filling removed and larger one replaced. I never actually felt the needle go in and I did ask "Have you done it?". Having convinced myself that the tooth wouldn't need extracting (Aggghhh!) and that I was well numbed up, it was just a case of close my eyes and think of something else. My jaw ached something rotten as I had to open slightly wider than it was designed to - apart from that, I had little anxiety during the whole thing. ;D
 
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