Dental extraction

[Beccab213]

I have had dental anxiety for years. I still always went to the appointments, but required general anesthesia in a hospital setting for 6 root canals. I had pain in my one tooth for over 4 months. Despite bite adjustments, fluoride treatments, and a mouthguard, the pain persisted. I had an extraction yesterday with bone grafting, and first stage dental implant loading. I have had difficulty sleeping and awful anxiety over this extraction for the past week. I had the procedure done yesterday and I could not believe how smoothly it went. I was upfront with my dental anxiety at the initial consultation and the dentist was so very understanding. I was prescribed Valium to take the night before and one hour before the procedure. I think the Valium helped tremendously. He started with some topical numbing on my gums and then two injections (one in the gum and one in the roof of the mouth). The one in the gums was painless and the one in the roof of the mouth stung for a brief minute. After that, the dentist started wiggling the tooth. I had slight pain (very slight- on a scale of one to ten, it was a one). He gave me one more injection and there was no pain at all after that. After wiggling the tooth for less than 3 minutes, it came right out. I had only slight pressure and I actually was unaware that he had already pulled the tooth. He then did the bone grafting and drilling for the first part of the implant process. It was a very smooth process and had no pain during the drilling. The whole process (from numbing to completion) was 43 minutes. The relief I had when it was over was so wonderful. I am here to encourage anyone with anxiety over this procedure to tell you that the anxiety was the worst part for me. I recommend being upfront with the dentist and dental staff, inquiring about anxiety medication, and listening to some guided meditation with headphones in. You can do this. It may be scary because of the unknown, but it was so much better than I could have ever expected.