• Dental Phobia Support

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Avoiding Treatment for years.

P

Paranoidpatient

Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2017
Messages
25
The first step to overcoming a problem is admitting you have a problem. (that is how I think it goes anyway) Now how long does step one take? I know I have problems with my teeth...and the only solution is a few trips to the dentist/endo and get everything sorted. For me it is WAY easier said than done. I obsess over my teeth...I realize that in the time I have worried all these years the treatment could be in my rear view mirror. Alas here I am venting about my latest dental scare. I have had a molar in bad condition for years...lately it has gone from bad to terrible. In November it broke due to the decay present...December a bigger chunk...January infection sets in and cannot even eat on that side of my mouth. February comes around and I believe the infection has found a way out...not through the root tip but through the tooth itself! Talk about goosebumps.

Here I sit with a giant hole in my tooth, exposed pulp (nerve) and can't stop playing with it and looking at it. Another day for this dental phobic. Now the tooth is pain free unless something aggravates the nerve inside the cavity. I can sleep, concentrate and do my everyday tasks/chores with no pain. Family and friends insist I call the dentist, a simple root canal or extraction they say! Simple and dentist don't belong in the same sentence (sorry dentists).

If...the infection is draining like I think it is, this brings me some comfort knowing that the pressure is being eased and the infection is finding a way out of my body.

Who knows when I will get that courage to call, it will come one day. Either by my choice or my body's hopefully it is the former. As for now writing this has helped me get those nerves out (a bad root canal pun perhaps :grin:) If you have read this it is greatly appreciated! Knowing that I am not alone out there helps immensely.
 
You are not alone. I have been the same for years. I avoided treatment, worried that infection would kill me, or that the painkillers would be the thing to do me in. Worrying about septic shock, about busting my liver or kidneys, about causing my heart or brain an infection. I took meds, I used clove oil, did everything I could to avoid going to the dentist, and compulsively checked for fever or any other sign that I was sick.

I have decided I want to become pregnant at some point in the near future, and it has spurred me to action, fearing that a bad tooth would be awful for my baby, that an infection would hurt us both. I'm also having the worst infection to date and I am terrified, but I have an appointment this evening. I explained to the woman there that I am phobic and she was very kind. After the call, I cried as my whole body shook in fear, but I am determined this time. I hope this is the start of the end of my troubles and that I can get over this.

What I mean by this is that if I can, so can you. I hope you can see this, find something to motivate you, and get all this pain and fear behind, you don't deserve to live like this. Wish you all the best.
 
I second the comment from Danny Oliver that you are not alone. Keep reading and you will find many stories like yours. Mine is similar too.

We are here for you.

I will share that I just completed a two-visit root canal, it was basically my first ever dental experience, and it went very well. No pain experienced and now no sensitivity to cold on that tooth. I am still shocked that after 30 years of keeping my dental phobia secret and never seeing a dentist, I can write these positive words and say I not only lived, but that it was easier than I thought. Yet we’re only human, and I have another appointment this week, and as the days get closer, I will make myself practically sick with misery and fear. But I know I will get through it.

Try to be kind to yourself. We are all doing the best we can and you are no exception.
 
Hi,

The biggest problem with dental anxiety is avoidance. In the end, thinking and procrastinating are not really fruitful, making an appointment with a dentist is what you need to do.
I invite you to watch my website TreatYourDentalFear.com
It is made mainly for people who have not been tot the dentist for many years and it is about how to find the right dentists and how to communicate effectively in order to overcome together the anxiety.
This wonderful website is also like my website a wonderful source for motivation and practical advice, but in the end, as I said in the beginning , what counts is what you do.
 
The first step to overcoming a problem is admitting you have a problem. (that is how I think it goes anyway) Now how long does step one take? I know I have problems with my teeth...and the only solution is a few trips to the dentist/endo and get everything sorted. For me it is WAY easier said than done. I obsess over my teeth...I realize that in the time I have worried all these years the treatment could be in my rear view mirror. Alas here I am venting about my latest dental scare. I have had a molar in bad condition for years...lately it has gone from bad to terrible. In November it broke due to the decay present...December a bigger chunk...January infection sets in and cannot even eat on that side of my mouth. February comes around and I believe the infection has found a way out...not through the root tip but through the tooth itself! Talk about goosebumps.

Here I sit with a giant hole in my tooth, exposed pulp (nerve) and can't stop playing with it and looking at it. Another day for this dental phobic. Now the tooth is pain free unless something aggravates the nerve inside the cavity. I can sleep, concentrate and do my everyday tasks/chores with no pain. Family and friends insist I call the dentist, a simple root canal or extraction they say! Simple and dentist don't belong in the same sentence (sorry dentists).

If...the infection is draining like I think it is, this brings me some comfort knowing that the pressure is being eased and the infection is finding a way out of my body.

Who knows when I will get that courage to call, it will come one day. Either by my choice or my body's hopefully it is the former. As for now writing this has helped me get those nerves out (a bad root canal pun perhaps :grin:) If you have read this it is greatly appreciated! Knowing that I am not alone out there helps immensely.
The fact you posted this shows you're ready for the next step.

Maybe do each step without thinking too far ahead. Make that phone call.

I did so about ten years ago after twenty years of never going to the dentist once - and it was the day I got my life back. I've ad ten years of a much happier life, not wasting time thinking about this stuff, because I made that one - unbelievable to me at the time - phone call.

I just wanted to say I had a tooth that I thought of as a 'train wreck of a tooth' - exposed pulp and for a number of years - almost nothing left of it. I thought it would definitely be an RCT or more likely, extraction. Ten years on (touch wood) - I still have it. Had an inlay. You would be amazed at what they can do now.

My fear was pain, feeling something. Have now been going for a decade, fairly regularly (with several lapses) and have ad various procedures including the one most dreaded - RCT on an infected tooth with an absess. Never have felt a moment's pain. Nothing. The anaesthesia now is brilliant.

Do yourself a massive favour and make that call. We'll hold your hand the whole way.
 
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