Autism, Anxiety and Abscesses

[Fynaticx]

So i have been struggling to live a normal life for nearly 15 years now due to really bad panic attacks and agoraphobia but to skip to the end of that story i have been getting really good support for it over the past 2 years and was even diagnosed with autism along the way. Over all this time i have also had a really bad dental phobia which comes from my childhood. With the support for my mental health i have got to the point where i was able to attend a dentist and sit in the chair and just last month i got a tiny filling done.
However right now i am in complete agony, its something a bit too familiar that happens maybe 2 or 3 times a year as one of my deep fillings has failed and the tooth is basically needing to be removed. This tooth in my mouth often causes infections and abscesses which put me in completely debilitating pain as im sure some people here also may have experienced. I was supposed to be getting treatment under sedation as its how i managed to get a lot of work done about 8 years ago. However my anxiety got so bad that I couldn’t make it to the dentist to get the sedation given to me. Since i have gotten back the my dentist he has stopped doing sedation dentistry and im now on a waiting list to try get that done in another dentist. However there’s still that option of just going in and getting the tooth out the standard way with just pain numbing injections.
So last weekend my tooth started to get painful so first thing Monday morning i rushed to a emergency appointment to get help before it got too bad. After that appointment and once again refusing to get the tooth removed im now on a course of 400mg metronidazole 3 times a day.
So first of all some questions i have is I’ve been taking the antibiotics for right now exactly 46 hours and the pain has only gotten worse. But trying to remember back to last times this happened i seem to remember also desperately counting down hours of the first few days till the 3rd and 4th day i finally got some relief. So with me going crazy right now not being able to sleep caus of pain is it normal and should i still be waiting on my medication to take effect?
Next up is on Friday i have my next standard appointment and obviously with the pain im in right now im tempted to see how far i can get with a tooth extraction but my deep rooted fears almost make the idea of it seem impossible or crazy just to consider it. Any advice or words of encouragement on dealing with my mental health and phobias and also getting a tooth removed?
Thank you for reading this far.
i look forward to getting some replies.

 

[NervousUSA]

@Fynaticx Hi there. I am sorry to hear you are in pain and having such a stressful situation! I don't know about the antibiotics unfortunately. I can tell you I have had three extractions and a dental implant this year with local anesthetic only, and though I was terrified, it turned out to be painless and not bad at all. Earlier this year I was in dread and fear of these extractions and an implant that I had to do to the point where my fear was ruining every day of my life. But now I have to have two more extractions next month, and I am not even worried, it turned out to be so much less bad than I thought it would be. My advice or words of encouragment are if you can do it, it could likely be like this for you too, painless, and not as bad as it seems like it would be. It also is a great relief to have it over with.

I can tell you when it comes to the mental/fear side of it, what has worked for me, which of course may not work for you. First has been regular use of the support forum here, and also the ask a dentist forum for phobic patients on this site. Second has been "exposure", by which I mean I went to the dentist, got a check up and a plan of all the treatment that I need, and then asked him to go in order from the least intense/invasive to the most invasive, so I could get used to undergoing dental treatment gradually. Third was I asked my partner to come along with me to all the appointments which I was most scared by, and wait with me. As well, I asked my dentist to email me my Xrays and started to use Denteractive, which is a service where you can instantly chat 24 hours a day with a dentist for a $10 fee, and ask them your questions, and send them photos and your Xrays. This way when I am worried or frightened, or having a problem, I can get instant advice from a dentist who is not profiting from treating me. I used the website Animated Teeth to learn exactly how extraction was done and how dental implant surgery was done in advance, so there were no suprises for me at the dentist. Though this would not be for everyone, for me it helps to understand things better. Definitely not for everyone, I also used youtube and watched a video of someone undergoing the same procedure as me under local anesthetic, and I was able to see from the video they were not in pain, though it was tough for me to watch the procedure, it was hard for me to believe this type of thing could be painless until I saw it with my own eyes, so I did feel a lot better after seeing that video. I don't know if any of this is any use for you, but I hope it is. I hope you feel better soon and the medication starts to work.

 

[mariyam]

@Fynaticx I totally understand the feelings. Wear whatever is comfortable (so important), bring headphones, bring a fidget, blanket, anything that will help you focus on something other than the procedure. I bring an eye mask in case the lights get too extreme for me.