• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

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Dog, meet Teeth.

S

sillybunny84

Junior member
Joined
Oct 14, 2018
Messages
3
Location
Australia
Hey y'all,

I'm sure this has been asked in many ways before, but I looked through a few pages and couldn't see it. I beg forgiveness if this is the three hundredth time you've seen such a post and please direct me if I should be looking elsewhere :)

So, about a week and a half ago, I was picking up the dog (a Jack Russell). She flung her head back as my head descended and smashed her skull into my front teeth. PAIN. No bleeding, no loose teeth, though my upper lip was swollen. By the next morning, the lip swelling had gone but the gums around the teeth had swollen and it hurt to bite with my left front tooth. Still no blood, no looseness. It stayed that way for 4 days (no colour changes to gums or teeth), then I woke up to find the pain at 50% of what it had been and the swelling gone. YAY, I thought. It continued to improve over the next few days.

Two days ago I woke up and my upper lip was swollen again. I mentioned it to my GP but without redness, tenderness, or fever, there wasn't anything she could do. It was gone by the afternoon. and everything seemed to be normal again.

I woke up this morning with minor pain in the left tooth again and the gums are swollen. No bleeding, no colour change, no looseness. It's Sunday, so even if I wanted to go to the dentist, I couldn't.

I have a terrible fear of dentists and needles and pain. I am slowly battling my fear of needles and would like to start the battle against my fear of dentists, but I'm also an unemployed student with exceptionally low income and the combo is stressing me out something wicked.

TL; DR: Front teeth met dog skull. Pain, swelling; no bleeding, looseness, or colour change; was improving, now seems to be getting worse again. Terrible fear of dentists.

SO. I'm sure someone out there was experienced a similar thing (baby's head, friend's head, arm of chair, tree branch, whatever) and I was wondering what your experiences with healing have been? Is it something I should dip into my pitiful savings to get checked out or is residual swelling and pain normal after tooth trauma?

Thanks in advance :) sorry it was such a long post.
 
I am not a dentist, so I can only share my story. I was hit in the mouth by a shopping cart at age 9. My tooth chipped. My lip was swollen for several days, but not the gums. My tooth was filled to fix the chip, and it was sore for quite some time. After a week or so, no pain or swelling. 30 years later, I woke up with a sore tooth, went to the dentist, and I have an abscess. She explained that my case was rare, considering it waited 30 years to abscess, but any time you have trauma to a tooth, it can damage the nerve.

If I were you, I would dip into savings to pay for an x ray. The fact that your gums have swollen later would make me worry about an abscess. I am not an expert, though, so maybe a dentist will chime in. I just know that an abscess needs to be treated before it can cause other issues. I am getting a root canal this week on mine.
 
Hi there,

as MountainMama suggest, you should let a dentist take a look at it and assess how traumatized the tooth is and how the nerve is doing. I am sorry to read that you struggle with dental fear and the finances. If anyhow possible, it might be a good idea to get it checked earlier than later, at least for you to get a proper diagnosis and find out if a treatment is needed and how much time you have with it. From there on you can plan further steps.

For the dental fear part it might be good to google around a bit and find a practice you feel might be good with nervous patients and then letting them know you are nervous beforehand. I am aware that if you struggle financially it might be more complicated to be too picky about a practice, but keeping my fingers crossed for you to find someone kind.

All the best wishes and keep us posted
 
I'm also sorry what happened and can only echo the rest in if you can try to get in and get care that would be best.

I want to encourage you that when I was 30 and didn't have much of anything and was on the state plan,(do you have any insurance? ) which very very few people took.. I happened to find a young gal just started her practice. She was so kind and compassionate with me and really helped. Also if you look there are a few Dr's out there who have offers on their webpages for free initial exams, which are typically short abreviated exams, but maybe enough for an opinion?

Hoping you can get into someone kind to take a look soon, it would be well worth it just for your peace of mind. I can imagine how the fear, the finances all just together, it can be an overwhelming thought.

Let us know how it goes
 
I just want to add something about the finances that my neighbor said to me. I have had multiple dental issues hit this summer and early fall, completely out of nowhere. I have been freaking out about the expenses, because, although we were doing okay with our finances, these huge dental bills (2 root canals, 2 retreatments, extraction with bone grafting, plus numerous x rays) have put us in debt. I was talking with my neighbor, who was commiserating, and she said, "It is your teeth. You can't put off treatment, or take the cheap route, just because it will hurt your finances now. If you do, it is really going to cost you later, whether financially or with quality of life."

That resonated with me. I don't want to avoid care now to save money. We are putting a lot of this debt on our credit card right now, because we truly don't have it, but I want my teeth to be healthy and last as long as possible. I would encourage you to think of that way as well.
 
So, it's been, gosh, 3 months since I posted the question and I am FINALLY back.

I did eventually go to a dentist. My mum had an appointment booked and mentioned me and my fear to them, and it turns out that her dentist used to work with my old one with patients with dental phobias. What a tiny world. So I went in.

Turns out that when the dog smashed into my tooth, she caused nerve or root damage with led to an abscess which then lead to the tooth dying. How utterly brilliant (insert eye roll here). And, whilst I was there, we put together a dental management plan for what needs to be done and when and costs. So that was good. Not so good was the cost - just over $10K (before insurance - not sure how much insurance will cover though). Luckily it's something that can be spread out over time, but ... still enough to hurt.

So, the first treatment - flushing out the abscess has been done. I managed to sit through it with the help of laughing gas. It was difficult, honestly, at the start. I almost stopped them and left. But I kinda got through it by asking myself how I wanted to feel in 2 hours: proud of myself for getting through it or angry and ashamed because I left? I also almost cried twice because ... it was so quick and easy. THAT was what I'd been afraid of for 20 years? THAT was what I'd been avoiding? THAT was the simple solution I hadn't gone with that has now led to a whole bunch of more complex issues? *shakes head* But I still think I'll stick with the gas for the next few visits.

Except tomorrow. Tomorrow I see the hygienist for a clean. And I'm not looking forward to it. One, because it's still dental work; but two, because I have a whole bunch of jaw pain going on right now and I have no idea what exactly is causing it. Neither ibuprofen nor paracetamol are doing much except taking the edge of it. I have a feeling I'll walk in to have them cleaned and walk out with an emergency appointment for fillings. Ugh.

But you guys are right: better to get the issues sorted now rather than waiting and, well, walking away with a $10K+ treatment plan. Thank you for all your advice and the encouragement to suck it up and take the plunge and face my fears. It was incredibly helpful. I know phobias are, by definition, irrational, but hearing the stories and seeing the logic helped. So cheers to y'all :cheers:
 
I am glad you got through it. Flushing the abscess and the root canal was hard for me, too, and I still have a lot more work to go as well. My total treatment cost will also be $10K plus.

I hope your cleaning goes well. I will say that after my abscess flush and root canal, my jaw and teeth hurt for a month afterwards, so maybe it is residual pain?
 
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