Dental phobia is back and worse then before

[Galaxy1989]

Hello

I was always scared of the dentist up until 2018. I needed a root canal and I was so scared but somehow I conquered my fear and having the root canal got me over my dental fears!
But my dental phobia is now back and it's worse then ever.
I'm 34 now and I have a new dentist (I have gone through so many dentists because I would keep cancelling appointments because of my fears but I'm determined to keep this one because my dentist is so lovely and they're the best in my area and had a long waiting list)
I hadn't seen the dentist in a few years and discovered I needed 3 fillings and a root canal.

I've had all 3 fillings but one filling hasn't worked and has been redone and still hasn't worked so my dentist said it must be cracked so I need to have a crown put on it.
I've had the temporary root canal put in and tomorrow is the appointment to finish it.
My dentist wants to have my dental work completed by April as that's when my maternity certificate runs out.

Anyway, the problem is I suddenly panic so much at the dentists! The injection doesn't bother me but the numbness does. It makes me feel out of control and when I have the upper gum numbed, it goes right up by my eye. My dentist said that is normal and I know it is but I really hate it. I had a spinal in April when I had planned csection so I was numb from my chest down but for some reason facial numbness is scarier to me!
When I had the first part of my root canal done, I had a panic attack once I had gone numb and it took me a while to calm down and then after she had done the temporary root canal, I got up and the room was spinning and my dentist had to get me to lay down with my knees up and give me a glucose tablet to chew on.
I'm really worried about tomorrow and I want to be able to go in there and keep calm but I don't know how!

I'm not sure if this could be related but I lost my mum last August and my doctor thinks I have ptsd so she's referred me for that. Could that be linked to my dental fears returning?

Thank you for reading and any advice greatly appreciated!

 

[NervousUSA]

@Galaxy1989 Hey I am sorry this happened to you. I have panicked twice at the dentist to the point of becoming faint. One time I was lying down so it didn't matter, the other time the room spun but I fought to act normal and succeeded (I was terrified the dentist would refuse to treat me and refer me to a specialist if he realized what was happening). I had to get counseling because of my issues with dentists and doctors, I had two opininions, one was that I had PTSD the other was "medical trauma". I went with the one that said "medical trauma", it was online by messaging counseling from 7cups, and it did improve things for me, and was fairly affordable, I did two months of it. That might help for you? The other thing I can say is I did get more used to the dentist, and started to react less, as time went on and I had more appointments, so maybe this will happen for you too. These days I am just trying to accept that I feel very anxious and frightened there, and anxious on the run up to it, and focus on looking forward to getting appointments over with.