Difficulty with a dentist

[Musicguy36]

So, I thought I would share my story as a journal since things will be ongoing.

Like most people, I never really liked the dentist as a kid but I knew it was important to go. I had 6 months checkups through childhood and when I became an adult, I still continued to go. One day the dentist told me I'm no longer entitled to NHS appointments and so either have to go private with him or pay a monthly amount to register with Denplan. I left with a Denplan leaflet. I'd not long started my first job and with my limited knowledge, I just thought that me working must have affected my entitlement to NHS appointments.

Looking at Denplan I simply couldn't afford it and so my only option was to not go to the dentist anymore. Don't get me wrong, I hated going so it was a relief I didn't have to go anymore, but if there had been a way to continue with appointments then I would have continued going as it's important.

As the years passed, a bottom tooth developed a crack. Had I been registered with a dentist, that would have been sorted, but still as my belief from what I was told was Denplan or private and I couldn't afford either, I just had to ignore it and hope it doesn't get too bad too quickly.

I was actually quite unfortunate having had 3 impacted wisdom teeth come through at different times. Each time I went to the walk in clinic for an emergency appointment (when each got bad to a point of constant agony). They extracted it and that was that. I was told by some of them that I should register with a dentist and when I explained how I'm no longer entitled to any NHS appointments so I can't afford to, they didn't tell me otherwise.

It was around 10 years since I was registered at a dentist when I stated dating someone who worked as a dental receptionist. We were talking one day about our teeth and I told her I just can't afford to see the dentist anymore as I can't have NHS appointments. She looked at me and told me that can't be true as everyone is entitled to NHS appointments.

I explained it to her and wow. It turns out it's a trick some bad dentists will use. They decide to go private and so some will mislead their patients to keep them by making them believe they can't have anymore NHS appointments in the hope they go private with that dentist.

All these years I had no idea about this. I had no reason to doubt him when he said I'm no longer entitled to NHS appointments.

When I found this out, to be honest with you I wasn't in a very good place to register with a dentist. Going through a lot in life, bereavement issues, PTSD, even some suicidal thoughts. I just didn't feel I could face having more on my plate at that point.

It was at that point that yes, the cracked tooth got worse and worse. Although strangely it was only by way of cosmetically. Half a tooth snapped off and no pain or worries at all.

Actually it took almost 10 years from when the crack appeared to being at a point where it's causing me some problems which were occasional flare ups. In the past year these happened where every few months I'd be in such agony. The tooth is, well, almost down to the gumline and the flare-ups would last around 4 days before it went down.

This time though, it's the worst flare up yet. The side of my face swelled up at first, then just as it started to go down, I noticed at the gum where this tooth it, there's a large red lump growing. I think at best I can expect gum irritation but I know it's going to more likely be an abscess. Great!!


Ideally I'm really still not in a good way mentally to be registered at a dentist and be back in a regular routine of going. Heck, it's going to mean x-rays, scale and polish, fillings, possible root canal and some other work. I just can't face it while my own life is like this. The good thing is I'm having the help for my mental health problems and coming on well with it, so I don't doubt that in a few months, I will probably be feeling a lot more stable to register at a dentist and deal with it.

Yet, no way can the possible abscess and tooth problem wait. If it is an abscess, it needs treatment and the tooth needs to go.


I'm planning on giving it a few days. If it all goes down by then, I'm going to continue my mental health treatment and see if I can be in a better place to face it all, but, if it's not down by Monday then there's no choice by to book an emergency appointment. Eek.

 

[Musicguy36]

Today it appears to still be the same. Strange actually how if it is an abscess, I heard these are always very painful. Well when this flareup started this time (when it was just a swollen cheek and pain coming from that tooth area), the pain was terrible to a stage where I couldn't sleep. Now, that pain has subsided and its just the potential abscess, there isn't really any pain at all. I can just feel a "tightness" around that area.

There is fear about the dentist itself of course. I know it's likely going to have to be sorted via an emergency appointment within days, so that's a scary thought.

It also doesn't help that I have fears about actual dentists themselves. Aside from what I mentioned about being told I was no longer entitled to NHS appointments by a rogue dentist, I've had other bad experiences with them during emergency appointments to have my wisdom teeth out.

1 of which was where the emergency dentist didn't understand English very well and when I was explaining to him the pain was in the wisdom tooth which was pushing into the side of my mouth, he must have misheard or something. When I got back home and the anaesthetic was wearing off, I was in terrible pain. I put my finger in my mouth and he had extracted the wrong tooth, not the wisdom tooth but the one next to it which had no problems with it at all. Over weeks/months the pain did go away because the wisdom tooth was no longer pressing against my mouth but that was the tooth that should have gone all along.

Then a few years later when it was another emergency appointment to have another wisdom tooth removed, the emergency dentist looked in my mouth and said "Oh, it's such a shame to see so much decay in someone so young". That was a bit upsetting for me because it wasn't my fault I hadn't been to the dentist for so many years (as I was told by a rogue dentist I'm no longer entitled to any NHS appointments) meaning I had to sit and watch my tooth go from cracked to breaking off more and more. Equally it wasn't my fault the wrong tooth was extracted previously. I know it may look bad, I'm aware of it, but it wasn't my fault and without a chance to explain to them, I just end up getting the blame.

I'm worried about this emergency appointment being the same sort of thing. I get rushed in, no chance to explain anything and they look in my mouth and come out with a comment like that. I'm completely aware of how my teeth are, I don't need anyone pointing it out to me especially as it would never got that bad had it not been for the rogue dentist years ago.

I struggle talking to people anyway because of my health, so dreading having to do that and then of course my head will be shaking as I sit in the chair so it will be where the dental nurse comes along and embarrassingly has to hold my head still.