N
NonCarpeDente
Junior member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2019
- Messages
- 7
- Location
- UK
I'm struggling to order my thoughts, it's just all too awful to think/write about. Basically I want to hear from people who understand what I feel like, I'd like to hear what they would do, and anything that might help. I might have to edit this later to put in relevant information, and I'll try not to make it overly long.
For years I've been unusually anxious about dental procedures. Within the last 2 years, I ended up with cavities in both upper wisdom teeth. My normal dentist is really good and I honestly feel he's the only one I can trust. He either suggested or agreed (I forget), on each occasion to fill the wisdom teeth, rather than remove them because of my anxiety. I found the first filling hell in the run up, with fear of it, but after the second I became somewhat okay about having fillings. The downside though, is that it meant the main aspect of my phobia left was losing teeth/having teeth removed, and I became much more anxious about those things.
Well in the middle of last week, I broke the filling in my upper right wisdom tooth. Just feeling the gap in the back of my mouth made me completely freak out. I went in to the usual clinic the next day for an emergency appointment, I couldn't see my usual dentist, but any port in a storm. For context, I have a number of job interviews/similar this upcoming week (14th-18th Jan), so she put in a temporary filling, as I said I didn't want to be dealing with the recovery whilst doing interviews.
She said I would need to have it removed, and referred me to another local clinic that deals with more anxious patients. My usual one say they can't do sedation because you have to walk up a flight of steps to get to it. Neither do general anesthetic. I probably shouldn't have, but I signed the referral/agreement thing, I would have signed anything to get out of the clinic at that point.
I just feel I can't have the tooth removed, it makes me nauseous to think about it. I'm not functioning well in day to day life because of this "sword of Damocles" hanging over my head. I'm paranoid I'm going to screw up a job interview because of it.
Normally I try to read about medical procedures I'm anxious about so that I understand them better. I can't even read about tooth extraction for more than about 20 seconds, without just bursting into tears and having to look away. I feel completely pathetic.
Ultimately, I suppose, I have 3 options:
1. Go and have it done at the clinic for nervous people under sedation. It would be done by an oral surgeon apparently, this is relevant.
2. Try to make an appointment at my normal clinic to have it done with my normal dentist (the only one I trust) without sedation. But he's very busy, and he may refuse to do it due to complications I don't know.
3. Either try to find somewhere that will do it under GA, or plead with my normal dentist to do another filling, or maybe something else entirely.
I don't know if it would be relevant/would cause problems, but I have some medical problems with my bones. I'm worried this will complicate the procedure. The other thing I worry is that there's so little of the tooth left, that it would be harder to remove.
The other thing, due to past events, the truth is I have a strong distrust of surgeons in particular but some doctors as well. So the idea of having it done by a surgeon, especially when I wouldn't be "in control" of myself (due to sedation), it's kind of a no-go really.
Thank you for reading and thank you in advance for any advice. I'm sorry about the cluttered nature of the post, I find it really hard to write about this.
For years I've been unusually anxious about dental procedures. Within the last 2 years, I ended up with cavities in both upper wisdom teeth. My normal dentist is really good and I honestly feel he's the only one I can trust. He either suggested or agreed (I forget), on each occasion to fill the wisdom teeth, rather than remove them because of my anxiety. I found the first filling hell in the run up, with fear of it, but after the second I became somewhat okay about having fillings. The downside though, is that it meant the main aspect of my phobia left was losing teeth/having teeth removed, and I became much more anxious about those things.
Well in the middle of last week, I broke the filling in my upper right wisdom tooth. Just feeling the gap in the back of my mouth made me completely freak out. I went in to the usual clinic the next day for an emergency appointment, I couldn't see my usual dentist, but any port in a storm. For context, I have a number of job interviews/similar this upcoming week (14th-18th Jan), so she put in a temporary filling, as I said I didn't want to be dealing with the recovery whilst doing interviews.
She said I would need to have it removed, and referred me to another local clinic that deals with more anxious patients. My usual one say they can't do sedation because you have to walk up a flight of steps to get to it. Neither do general anesthetic. I probably shouldn't have, but I signed the referral/agreement thing, I would have signed anything to get out of the clinic at that point.
I just feel I can't have the tooth removed, it makes me nauseous to think about it. I'm not functioning well in day to day life because of this "sword of Damocles" hanging over my head. I'm paranoid I'm going to screw up a job interview because of it.
Normally I try to read about medical procedures I'm anxious about so that I understand them better. I can't even read about tooth extraction for more than about 20 seconds, without just bursting into tears and having to look away. I feel completely pathetic.
Ultimately, I suppose, I have 3 options:
1. Go and have it done at the clinic for nervous people under sedation. It would be done by an oral surgeon apparently, this is relevant.
2. Try to make an appointment at my normal clinic to have it done with my normal dentist (the only one I trust) without sedation. But he's very busy, and he may refuse to do it due to complications I don't know.
3. Either try to find somewhere that will do it under GA, or plead with my normal dentist to do another filling, or maybe something else entirely.
I don't know if it would be relevant/would cause problems, but I have some medical problems with my bones. I'm worried this will complicate the procedure. The other thing I worry is that there's so little of the tooth left, that it would be harder to remove.
The other thing, due to past events, the truth is I have a strong distrust of surgeons in particular but some doctors as well. So the idea of having it done by a surgeon, especially when I wouldn't be "in control" of myself (due to sedation), it's kind of a no-go really.
Thank you for reading and thank you in advance for any advice. I'm sorry about the cluttered nature of the post, I find it really hard to write about this.