• Dental Phobia Support

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dental phobia and other doctors

E

elaine

Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2006
Messages
96
just wondering if your dental phobia keeps you from seeing other doctors
that are not connected to your oral health? I've talked to a couple of others
who say they are now scared of ALL doctors and refuse to go. Thankfully I'm
not in that situation.

Elaine
 
elaine said:
just wondering if your dental phobia keeps you from seeing other doctors
that are not connected to your oral health? I've talked to a couple of others
who say they are now scared of ALL doctors and refuse to go. Thankfully I'm
not in that situation.

Elaine

Unfortunately, I am scared of all doctors. I will go but I have anxiety attacks big time. Even the eye doctor makes me nervous, but I can handle going there the easiest of all of them. I had lots of bad doctor experiences growing up and I think that is the reason. I just don't like being messed with!
 
Hi.... I am exactly the same, I can't see a doctor either, have never seen an optician and haven't had a smear test for at least 8 years. I seam to be getting worse as I get older. the funny thing is, my doctor joined my gym, and I was able to chat and work out with her, but the second I am forced to see her professionally I shake and tremble and can't speak! I have sacroydisis which caused eyrethema nodesum which effects the legs and feet, I had to see someone about that as I couldn't walk, she wanted me to have x-rays, physio and special insoles for my shoes, I didn't manage to do any of it, and aside from the initial chest x-rays I have refused treatment for the sarcoydosis. god help me if I ever need an oporation as i will just have to die! seriously I have come to realise that my phobia is so out of control, i am going to have to do something about it, but when i looked up the treatment about beating phobia it started..... Go and see you GP so it is a catch 22 Can't see someone privately as I have just given all our spare cash to the dentist. But in answer to your question, I am exactly the same, I don't like being looked at by ANYONE x
 
Oh Penny, you sound so like me. I am so glad that i am not alone. I frequently thought that I had to do something about my phobia, but the treatment is, see a psychologist, a health professional. The only thing worse than having my body messed with is having my head messed with! Really though, an optometrist is about as easy as it gets. Unfortunately, I have developed a chronic eye problem. It is only a matter of time before the dreaded referral to the ophthalmologist (M.D.)! I'm just hoping for lots more positive dental experiences before then. Maybe that will make it easier?
 
I hope so!!!! You never know. I really think I will have to get help with this though, it has far too big an impact on my life. If I were you I would deal with the current pressing issues then try to look at treating the phobia, there must be a way, when you find it be sure to let me know!! Seriously there has to be a way, there are far too many of us for there not to be a way x
 
gosh this just sounds like me. My dental phobia has gone on so long because people who normally fear things like that would go to the doctor, but I fear anything medical so could not do that.

What I fear most I think is bad news - I only have to get a sore throat and I have throat cancer, inidgestion and it turns into a heart attack or cancer of some thought.

Now I have just got to the point where I have seen the hygenist at the Dentists and this Thursday I will see the 'D' man himself. Although the hygenist has told me I do not have mouth cancer I still think the 'D' man might prove her wrong (how silly can I be) and I am also worried that all my teeth will have to come out, it will have to be done in a hospital (just don't even go there) and probably loads of other dreadful things as well. Why can't I just accept that it might not be as bad as I think.

At the moment I have hayfever and a dreadfull sore throat but will I go to the doctors, you must be joking, just grin and bear it and it will go away - as it has done in the past. I know one of these days I will get my just deserts when something really bad is wrong with me and I do nothing about it.

It is so good to hear that there are other people like me about.
 
Well, I have finally managed to phone the doctor and made 2 appointments, while I am suffering dental hell, i thought in for a penny in for a pound! My dentist is charging me £147 for 15 tamezipan tablets, which is outragious, it is bad enough getting charged £688 for £47 worth of NHS treatment, but at least there is skill and labour involved, charging me £147 for tamazipan is taking the micky, so I have an appointment to get some from my doctor instead. I have had it from her before so it shouldn't be a problem, and I have the letter from the dentist to back up the amount he is charging. While I am there I am going to ask about the possibility for finding a cure for the phobia, if there is one I will let you know! I have also made an appointment with the nurse for the dreaded smear! So Elaine, asking the question has shown me just how far I am slipping into this phobia, I don't want to actually die, it is bad enough feeling like I am going to at the dentist! Honest to goodness, i was in such panic on Saturday I thought my heart was going to stop. I can't go on like this! x
 
Penny, things like that have nevered bothered me. Just the dental thing!
Congrats on taking the step!

I wish I understood the currency exchanges in the UK vs US. When yall give
amounts, I never understand! Probably like you guys understanding our currency
rates!

Elaine
Dallas
 
Hi..... well there is about $1.80 to one english pound, so if you about double the english you are more or less there! x
 
Up until recently i was scared of the dentist and scared of ever having to go into hospital to have an operation, but i had to have a dreaded operation, just minor surgery on the day ward. but i had that instant sick feeling in my stomach, a lump in my throat from the minute i found out. I was imagining, waking up in the middle of the op and not being able to move, or speak coz of the tube stuck down my throat. Then i was imagining not waking up at all.

In the end, they did the whole op under local aneasthetic, which was scary, when you can smell your own burning flesh and feel the surgeons hands poking and prodding inside you, but it cured my phobia of needles and stitches.

The surgeons and theatre staff were great, calming, freindly, explained everything to me, showed me the instruments to be used, the same way my dentist does now.

The nurses on the ward afterwards brought me a nice cup of tea and a round of toast.

Now i guess apart fro my dental phobias, my fear or surgery isn't to bad but my fear of general aneasthetic is huge.
 
My dental phobia has not affected my seeing other doctors at all. As a baby I was born premature and was quite ill, I developed hydrocephalus. Hospitals,doctors and nurses have been a feature in my life. I've had six operations so far. Over the years i have developed a great deal of trust and confidence in nurses - they are a group I look up to. This has possibly been a factor in why I preffer to be treated by a female doctor / dentist. It has possibly contributed to my dental phobia because until I met my previous dentist Miss Potter I had not experienced this sort of 'care' from a dentist. i would now always chose to see a female dentist, I feel more at ease with them and more able to express my emotions / fears to them.
 
That's an interesting point you raise Geraint :). Funnily enough (what a small world it is :rolleyes:), I've also spent a lot of time in hospital due to a few medical problems - one of which being hydrocephalus (I've still got my shunt 27 years later - don't need it now though ;D) and like you, my fear of dentists and all things dental hasn't affected my hospital visits at all.

The strangest thing of all is that my fear was originally started by a couple of really bad experiences in hospital and yet I don't have a fear of hospitals or doctors :o! Then again, I've had more bad experiences at the dentist than I have in hospital so maybe that has something to do with it, who knows... :confused:
 
Elaine, there's a great site www.xe.com/ucc for currency converting=)
And as for the question, I actually like going to the doctors but I can't have them look into my mouth so if I have a sore throat or anything.. Which I did do at some point. It was hurting for about 2 months but I couldnt go to the doctor about it.
 
I avoid doctors but I will go if I feel I need to. I get a bit nervous, but nothing serious. I think it is mainly from a fear that they will ask me to open my mouth. If it is for my foot or something that I'm there, I'm pretty much ok. I could NEVER tell a doctor about my dental phobia. One dentist asked me to talk to a doc about getting some meds to make a visit easier and I couldn't do it. I couldn't even allow for them to call the doctor for me. It's like my phobia is my shame, and I have that shame contained to one small group of people right now. I don't want that group getting any bigger!
 
My problem is kind of the reverse--transferring anxiety from an MD to the dentist. I have never liked going to the dentist, especially the shots--my heart races, I count the seconds until he is done, white-knuckle grip on the chair, etc. Then I had a horrid experience with a new physician in the same building--was basically lied to, verbally abused and subjected to a lot of pain. I fired her (the MD) but now all the frustration, fear, hysteria has transferred to dentistry, and I cannot bear the thought of shots or anything without major pharmaceutical assistance. Recently he started drilling on the guy next to me while I was getting a cleaning, and I about hit the roof. Valium doesn't work--I get so anxious I metabolize it almost immediately, so it's gone by the crunch time, and I'm hyperventilating all through the horrible needle, which always seems to last for hours--I know people think "nice and slow" (shiver) but it's just simply torture. He doesn't use nitrous, so next time I need work I guess I will have to find someone else--I just refuse to lose a year of my life to the stress of having an hour of work done.

Funny, my new doctor is in a location far away from the dentist, and I have no anxiety about going to him.
 
When you say "the guy next to you" do you mean in the next room? I hate when you can hear drilling throughout the place. Urgh. I think I just decided to keep up my search for a dentist rather then go to the one I was considering...it's not private enough... The experience you just described would send me through the roof as well!
 
I don't have a fear or phobia of the doctor, but I do tend to avoid going unless it's absolutely necessary. Now hospitals, they're another matter. They could do whatever they liked as long as I'm a day patient, but once they try to keep/admit me I'm out of there.
When I had my last daughter by c-section I was awake all night wandering the corridors and as soon as I found out the baby was fine, and she'd already been discharged by the paed doctor I discharged myself and was home within 24 hours of the surgery.
I think my dislike of hospitals is more to do with a strange bed and the noises around, than what they're actually going to do with me. I only relax and rest once I get home.
 
Lilone--actually the room next door is mostly a cubicle with 3 walls, the 4th being open to the central hall. I really hate that arrangement. My dentist's old office was in an old building, and all the work rooms had doors. You could still hear a bit, but it was definitely more private. I don't like that everyone 3 feet away can hear what you/the dentist/hygienist are saying (groaning, sobbing, whatever).

Does anyone else (besides me) get annoyed with those incredibly cheerful assistants and others who are just sure you must be thrilled to be there and want to shout to the whole office things like "you don't want to be here?!!! Why not?", and make you feel like some sort of troll. I wish they could accept gracefully that it's not them, per se, that I don't like, but rather being in that chair, mouth full of , well, you know, the whole procedure. Just let me get through it, and don't insist that I hop on your happy-car, please.
 
Have a general fear of all doctors including dentists and hospitals. Can't swallow Pills, none not very understanding about that. Have White Coat Hypertension, pointless to have blood pressure readings in a doctor's office. HATE Gynecologists, would rather go for mammograms instead...only appointment I can handle.
 

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