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All four wisdom teeth with IV sedation - please read

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daisychain

Junior member
Joined
Mar 4, 2012
Messages
6
So I'm from the UK and am petrified of dentists like many people here. Had some bad experiences in my past that has caused me to avoid the dentist at all costs. Of course this catches up with you when you get cavities.

About a year ago I noticed while eating that I had a huge cavity in the back of my wisdom tooth that I'd not noticed. I was suddenly filled with that gut wrenching panic as my tongue probed around the hole, I knew even then that it was too large to be filled and that they'd probably just want to remove the whole tooth.

Well it wasn't hurting at that time and so in my great wisdom ;p I decided to wait until it was absolutely necessary to go to the dentist. (Classic fear based avoidance) Fast forward one year while I'm on vacation in the US..

My upper left wisdom tooth was in agony with a huge abscess, and my right one had also developed a large cavity with the nerve exposed. Drinking and eating was hell. After several days of pain I built up the courage to see a local dentist. He couldn't offer IV sedation but offered to pull them out without anesthesia very quickly for $300. I couldn't do it, the fear of being awake was too much. So he gave me some antibiotics and off I went.

Antibiotics didn't help and suddenly I had an abscess on both sides! This was getting ridiculous, I was letting my fears control my life, If I didn't go to the dentist soon something serious like infection could happen.

I looked up dentists in the US that offered Iv sedation, a relative took me along to see Dr.James Vetter in Colorado springs. I was way beyond nervous, I went in without mentioning anything about my phobia, he was very kind to me and promised to get it taken care of right away. I had all 4 wisdom teeth removed under IV sedation. The worst part was getting the IV inserted as I don't like needles (who does?) but the nurse was so kind and she numbed the area before putting it in.

The oral surgeon was also acting as anesthesiologist, which had me nervous, but he did a great job! He told me exactly what drugs they were putting in the IV and talked me through the entire thing. My heart was racing and I could hear it on the monitor. I started to cry and the nurses were so unbelievably kind. Soon I felt dizzy from the sedation. Next thing I knew I was in the recovery room, great thing about IV sedation is you have no memory of what happened. So I literally had no memory of any pain. And better yet I have absolutely 0 post operative pain. I got myself all worked up for nothing!

Despite getting 4 wisdom teeth out I didn't even need to take an over the counter painkiller. I went home, slept off the drugs and was well enough to go out to the grocery store a few hours later! I couldn't believe I was walking about in 0 pain, after months of avoidance and agony. The horribile teeth were gone and taken care of! I'll never let my fears get in the way of my dental hygiene again. It's not worth the pain, because the reality I have learned is that modern dentistry is painless.

Please listen to my story and don't let your fears control you, relief is around the corner from your dentist, just get some courage and they will do the rest for you and look after you!
 
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