B
Bthornton23
Junior member
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2018
- Messages
- 3
Hey all,
So up until last week I hadn’t been to the dentist since I was 18. I’m 41 now.
When I was 18 I had a few cavities filled by a dentist that wreaked of alcohol still drunk from the night before. Some guy was in the room waiting for him to get done drunk drilling on me so they could go fine his car.
Prior to this I had only been to the dentist a few times. Never gassed or sedated and it was never pleasant.
Over the last 23 years I have always had dental insurance but being absolutely horrified of returning I always had an excuse not to. No money, no time whatever. I never looked into anything like forums like this, never talked about it and would not listen to anyone else’s stories about the dentist. I heard horrible advice that helped me put it off longer like “don’t go to the dentist unless your teeth hurt because either way they will hurt after you go. That’s another thing. My teeth never hurt all these years. Anyways I internalized and ignored all of it but the entire time this has weighed heavily on me knowing that the longer I wait the worse it will be.
I haven’t exactly taken good care of my teeth. Drinking soda, not flossing or brushing regularly cause they’re all going to get pulled anyways right? And lots of blood when I do brush. I still have my wisdom teeth which I was told 23 years ago would have to be cut out. Google told me that the pimple on my gum a couple years ago was an abscess and that’s come an gone a couple time in different places. Chunks of plaque (or teeth) falls out every now and then. And the final straw was it seemed I must have had an infection that was affecting my hearing.
So, after seriously considering setting up an appointment for a good several months I finally did it. I called last Monday. My palms were sweating when I made the call. Told them it had been a long time, that I was terrified and about the hearing issue and they fit me in last week Friday.
I tried not to think about it. Just numb. Expecting a lot of pain and probably dentures in my 40’s.
They started out with x-rays and then the dentist came in. You ready for this? She says “yeah you still have your wisdom, we like them gone before your 30 but there’s plenty of bone and the aren’t rotting so we’ll leave them for now. No abscesses”. The she pokes around a little bit and tells me I don’t have any cavities....WHAT?!?!? How is that possible? She said I do have gum disease but I haven’t lost a lot of bone and all my teeth are still very secure and tight and just need a good cleaning. Like 2 hours worth of cleaning. There’s so much build up that it may be pushing on nerves that go to the ears so hopefully the cleaning will take care of that.
She said you either have cavity bacteria or gum disease bacteria and I have the later apparently.
All the worry. Literally decades of worrying and I don’t even have a cavity!!! I was almost in tears. I’m almost in tears now.
Went in for my first cleaning session today and I was great. At first it felt like something was going to break but she just said we don’t have to worry about that because my teeth are fine.
I go in in a couple weeks for my next cleaning and I’m ready to go to the dentist regularly. Got new heads for my toothbrush, some mouthwash and a waterpik water flosser. Brushed my teeth tonight with hardly any blood.
So that’s it. I just wanted to share. Hopefully this helps someone. I could even bring myself to a forum like this a couple weeks ago but if your reading this and your in the same boat I was just do it. You really never know how bad it is until you go and it’s probably not as bad as you think it is.
So up until last week I hadn’t been to the dentist since I was 18. I’m 41 now.
When I was 18 I had a few cavities filled by a dentist that wreaked of alcohol still drunk from the night before. Some guy was in the room waiting for him to get done drunk drilling on me so they could go fine his car.
Prior to this I had only been to the dentist a few times. Never gassed or sedated and it was never pleasant.
Over the last 23 years I have always had dental insurance but being absolutely horrified of returning I always had an excuse not to. No money, no time whatever. I never looked into anything like forums like this, never talked about it and would not listen to anyone else’s stories about the dentist. I heard horrible advice that helped me put it off longer like “don’t go to the dentist unless your teeth hurt because either way they will hurt after you go. That’s another thing. My teeth never hurt all these years. Anyways I internalized and ignored all of it but the entire time this has weighed heavily on me knowing that the longer I wait the worse it will be.
I haven’t exactly taken good care of my teeth. Drinking soda, not flossing or brushing regularly cause they’re all going to get pulled anyways right? And lots of blood when I do brush. I still have my wisdom teeth which I was told 23 years ago would have to be cut out. Google told me that the pimple on my gum a couple years ago was an abscess and that’s come an gone a couple time in different places. Chunks of plaque (or teeth) falls out every now and then. And the final straw was it seemed I must have had an infection that was affecting my hearing.
So, after seriously considering setting up an appointment for a good several months I finally did it. I called last Monday. My palms were sweating when I made the call. Told them it had been a long time, that I was terrified and about the hearing issue and they fit me in last week Friday.
I tried not to think about it. Just numb. Expecting a lot of pain and probably dentures in my 40’s.
They started out with x-rays and then the dentist came in. You ready for this? She says “yeah you still have your wisdom, we like them gone before your 30 but there’s plenty of bone and the aren’t rotting so we’ll leave them for now. No abscesses”. The she pokes around a little bit and tells me I don’t have any cavities....WHAT?!?!? How is that possible? She said I do have gum disease but I haven’t lost a lot of bone and all my teeth are still very secure and tight and just need a good cleaning. Like 2 hours worth of cleaning. There’s so much build up that it may be pushing on nerves that go to the ears so hopefully the cleaning will take care of that.
She said you either have cavity bacteria or gum disease bacteria and I have the later apparently.
All the worry. Literally decades of worrying and I don’t even have a cavity!!! I was almost in tears. I’m almost in tears now.
Went in for my first cleaning session today and I was great. At first it felt like something was going to break but she just said we don’t have to worry about that because my teeth are fine.
I go in in a couple weeks for my next cleaning and I’m ready to go to the dentist regularly. Got new heads for my toothbrush, some mouthwash and a waterpik water flosser. Brushed my teeth tonight with hardly any blood.
So that’s it. I just wanted to share. Hopefully this helps someone. I could even bring myself to a forum like this a couple weeks ago but if your reading this and your in the same boat I was just do it. You really never know how bad it is until you go and it’s probably not as bad as you think it is.
