C
callaphera
Junior member
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2011
- Messages
- 8
Well, I say that I'm determined, but when push comes to shove (or when I walk into the dental office), I could be running out the door screaming before they even get near me.
A bit of background: I was six when I had a bad experience. Two teeth of mine had grown in rotten, black marks, hole through one, the whole nine yards. As they were baby teeth, my parents decided to have them pulled. I have hazy memories of this, but it affected me greatly. I remember the big foam blocks they had in my mouth, which I think is now related to my bad gag reflex for fear of choking. I remember getting multiple needle stabs on the back of my hand, so I'm assuming they were trying to sedate me. It didn't work, and I walked away with an intense fear of needles. And then they pulled the teeth anyway, while I was screaming and crying and with no anesthetic whatsoever. In my teens, I got through a few fillings. I went to a dentist for "difficult young patients", which we had to make a trip out of town for, but their way of working around it was to have my mother hold me down while they drilled. There were many appointments where I walked out either just before or just after getting the numbing needle and had to rebook.
Fast forward to now. I'm twenty seven, and haven't been in since I was seventeen (when my father's dental no longer covered me). My teeth have been in a bad state most of my life and I've known for years that something has to be done. I live in Canada and have no dental insurance, so everything comes straight out of my pocket. The other week, while eating pizza, I felt a hard chunk in a bite and thought, "Well, pepperoni doesn't have any hard bits in it", apologized to my boyfriend for being very unladylike, and then spat it into my hand. Turns out I had broken a back molar in half, on an angle, at the gum line. I had broken teeth before. It was no big!
Until the infection set in and the tooth started to hurt worse than anything I had ever felt in my life. I had an almost futile search on Friday, looking for a dentist to pull my tooth, since I assumed that was what I needed. I found a fantastic place that took me in right away (literally, five minutes from my phone call), and they said that they not only dealt with the "problem" patients, but assured me that my fear wasn't my fault. When I say I'm terrified of dentists, I mean it. It took over forty minutes to get three x-rays done of my teeth. The whole time, the hygenist talked to me calmly and kept reassuring me that I was doing great (on a side note, turns out I went to high school with her). The dentist followed and explained my x-rays to me. She explained that aside from the one tooth, my back molars had never come through the gum line when I was younger, and they want to pull four teeth in the back to let those have a chance to come up, since my mouth is too crowded. I also need one crown and one filling.
We're just dealing with the single extraction to begin with. This is where the fear set in. I once had dental surgery at a children's hospital, and was knocked out for a good four or five hours. Most stress free dental appointment ever! But now, after ten years of swearing up and down I would never step foot in another dental office, I have an appointment on Wednesday to remove this tooth (they did offer to do a root canal over two appointments and fit it with a crown, but because it's such a large break, they don't know if it'll take; I opted for extraction). I KNOW that I have to go through with it. I never realized how badly tooth pain can be. I couldn't afford the IV sedation, which I would have preferred, and am getting oral sedation instead.
My appointment is booked for two hours, the first hour dedicated to getting me loopy. Everyone I've talked to, who has gone to this particular dentist, and to people who have gone elsewhere, have told me that oral sedation is good enough to knock me for a serious loop and not even care. Yeah, right, my mind tells me. I've read, and heard, that extractions generally take no more than five minutes and you can't feel it anyway. I'm terrified of Wednesday morning. I booked as early as I could to get it over with quickly. I plan on calling Monday in order to find out what exactly they're giving me so I can research it and know the effects.
But that doesn't take away much of the fear, and I'm terrified that this is going to be another case of, "Oh, look how fast Speedy Gonzalas can run out of the office!" with a cloud of cartoon dust behind me. Any advice or support would be lovely. I haven't felt like this much of a wreck in ages.
A bit of background: I was six when I had a bad experience. Two teeth of mine had grown in rotten, black marks, hole through one, the whole nine yards. As they were baby teeth, my parents decided to have them pulled. I have hazy memories of this, but it affected me greatly. I remember the big foam blocks they had in my mouth, which I think is now related to my bad gag reflex for fear of choking. I remember getting multiple needle stabs on the back of my hand, so I'm assuming they were trying to sedate me. It didn't work, and I walked away with an intense fear of needles. And then they pulled the teeth anyway, while I was screaming and crying and with no anesthetic whatsoever. In my teens, I got through a few fillings. I went to a dentist for "difficult young patients", which we had to make a trip out of town for, but their way of working around it was to have my mother hold me down while they drilled. There were many appointments where I walked out either just before or just after getting the numbing needle and had to rebook.
Fast forward to now. I'm twenty seven, and haven't been in since I was seventeen (when my father's dental no longer covered me). My teeth have been in a bad state most of my life and I've known for years that something has to be done. I live in Canada and have no dental insurance, so everything comes straight out of my pocket. The other week, while eating pizza, I felt a hard chunk in a bite and thought, "Well, pepperoni doesn't have any hard bits in it", apologized to my boyfriend for being very unladylike, and then spat it into my hand. Turns out I had broken a back molar in half, on an angle, at the gum line. I had broken teeth before. It was no big!
Until the infection set in and the tooth started to hurt worse than anything I had ever felt in my life. I had an almost futile search on Friday, looking for a dentist to pull my tooth, since I assumed that was what I needed. I found a fantastic place that took me in right away (literally, five minutes from my phone call), and they said that they not only dealt with the "problem" patients, but assured me that my fear wasn't my fault. When I say I'm terrified of dentists, I mean it. It took over forty minutes to get three x-rays done of my teeth. The whole time, the hygenist talked to me calmly and kept reassuring me that I was doing great (on a side note, turns out I went to high school with her). The dentist followed and explained my x-rays to me. She explained that aside from the one tooth, my back molars had never come through the gum line when I was younger, and they want to pull four teeth in the back to let those have a chance to come up, since my mouth is too crowded. I also need one crown and one filling.
We're just dealing with the single extraction to begin with. This is where the fear set in. I once had dental surgery at a children's hospital, and was knocked out for a good four or five hours. Most stress free dental appointment ever! But now, after ten years of swearing up and down I would never step foot in another dental office, I have an appointment on Wednesday to remove this tooth (they did offer to do a root canal over two appointments and fit it with a crown, but because it's such a large break, they don't know if it'll take; I opted for extraction). I KNOW that I have to go through with it. I never realized how badly tooth pain can be. I couldn't afford the IV sedation, which I would have preferred, and am getting oral sedation instead.
My appointment is booked for two hours, the first hour dedicated to getting me loopy. Everyone I've talked to, who has gone to this particular dentist, and to people who have gone elsewhere, have told me that oral sedation is good enough to knock me for a serious loop and not even care. Yeah, right, my mind tells me. I've read, and heard, that extractions generally take no more than five minutes and you can't feel it anyway. I'm terrified of Wednesday morning. I booked as early as I could to get it over with quickly. I plan on calling Monday in order to find out what exactly they're giving me so I can research it and know the effects.
But that doesn't take away much of the fear, and I'm terrified that this is going to be another case of, "Oh, look how fast Speedy Gonzalas can run out of the office!" with a cloud of cartoon dust behind me. Any advice or support would be lovely. I haven't felt like this much of a wreck in ages.
Last edited: