G
goose87
Junior member
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2010
- Messages
- 3
Please can somebody help me.. actually my husband.
My poor husband, he has the worse teeth I have ever seen. I've 'googled' rotten teeth, and the images that have come up are no where near the state of his.
His teeth have all broken and rotted away over the past few years, he's been left with black stumps. Rarely he feels pain when he breaks more of a tooth off. He's a constant avoider of all things, but this has got to a point... well, it's just not ok anymore. He needs to do something about his oral health. I'm really scared.
I am not sure what my husband's problem with dentists are, we've been together for 7 years and it's still a subject he does not wish to talk about. I believe it has to do with a feeling of loss of control - he would always prefer to be doing something/anything else than be at a dentist (who wouldn't). Several years ago he cancelled appointments for all of his top teeth to be removed, because the public dentist (in South Australia) expected him to be without teeth for 3 months before he could have false teeth. Fair enough I say. But he didn't voice his concerns either, I would have if I had of known.
A couple of weeks ago he suffered quite bad facial swelling, causing his eye to close a little. I took him to the Dr, secretly knowing that I thought it would be a problem with his teeth but not saying anything. Dr after a quick look tells him he has a bad tooth abscess, puts him on 2 different antibiotics with orders to go to public dental emergency after the weekend. Needless to say my husband made up excuses not to go to the dentist, saying the antibiotics would fix it and he had more important things to do. He was supposed to go on a second course of meds but didn't fill out the script. This was a couple of days ago, and now he's in pain.
What can I do to convince him that it's time to go to the dentist? I've been calm, supportive, angry, demanding at different times. I've been the one making appointments for him, to not saying a word about his teeth for several years in hope he would gain the courage to do it himself. He would never admit that he had a problem, I don't think I could get him to talk about it to anyone either..
I'm sorry for the long post. Please please can someone offer advice
My poor husband, he has the worse teeth I have ever seen. I've 'googled' rotten teeth, and the images that have come up are no where near the state of his.
His teeth have all broken and rotted away over the past few years, he's been left with black stumps. Rarely he feels pain when he breaks more of a tooth off. He's a constant avoider of all things, but this has got to a point... well, it's just not ok anymore. He needs to do something about his oral health. I'm really scared.
I am not sure what my husband's problem with dentists are, we've been together for 7 years and it's still a subject he does not wish to talk about. I believe it has to do with a feeling of loss of control - he would always prefer to be doing something/anything else than be at a dentist (who wouldn't). Several years ago he cancelled appointments for all of his top teeth to be removed, because the public dentist (in South Australia) expected him to be without teeth for 3 months before he could have false teeth. Fair enough I say. But he didn't voice his concerns either, I would have if I had of known.
A couple of weeks ago he suffered quite bad facial swelling, causing his eye to close a little. I took him to the Dr, secretly knowing that I thought it would be a problem with his teeth but not saying anything. Dr after a quick look tells him he has a bad tooth abscess, puts him on 2 different antibiotics with orders to go to public dental emergency after the weekend. Needless to say my husband made up excuses not to go to the dentist, saying the antibiotics would fix it and he had more important things to do. He was supposed to go on a second course of meds but didn't fill out the script. This was a couple of days ago, and now he's in pain.
What can I do to convince him that it's time to go to the dentist? I've been calm, supportive, angry, demanding at different times. I've been the one making appointments for him, to not saying a word about his teeth for several years in hope he would gain the courage to do it himself. He would never admit that he had a problem, I don't think I could get him to talk about it to anyone either..
I'm sorry for the long post. Please please can someone offer advice
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