• 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.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

feeling so ashamed.

J

jessbear

Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2011
Messages
23
Location
Edmonton,AB
Hey Everyone,

I'm new here and so happy I found this site! I don't even know where to start to just bare with me, it might be a bit long, but all I am asking is for some support and encouragement. Feels good to know that I am not the only one!

I've been terrified of the dentists since I was little! I'm 23 now and it all really started when I was 17 my jaw locked. I don't know what caused it because I was just laying there talking normally when bam there goes my jaw! Never really thought anything of it cause it never really gave me problems, but over the last couple years it has locked twice and is always popping and clicking. No real pain but most days I wish I could just rip it off! it drives me nuts!! I know it's TMJ and I do catch myself clenching my jaw at night too.

I think every single tooth in my mouth has a filling, or some sort of work done on it. When I was 18 years old. Both of my top 2nd molars had chipped. I went to the dentists but he told me i had to have them extracted! I was obviously misinformed and could have had them fixed if I had went to another dentist. but he scared the living day lights out of me and I think that's when my phobia really kicked in. Couple months after that my filling came out of left 1st bottom molar(I believe that's what they are) and then my 1st molar on the right chipped. So for two years I was terrified of going to the dentists because of how terrible of shape they were in. I felt soo embarrassed and ashamed, I hated myself

I finally got the courage to go in 2008, I went in for a few appointments until one stupid night I chipped my two front teeth! My God did my world ever fall apart that night! I can't afford to have veneers or crowns put on so all I have is bonding... so everyday I live in fear that I'll relive that terrible night again and again! So after this happening I was even more embarrassed to have my teeth looked at and hopefully fixed. Months and months later after that terrible night I finally got the courage to go again. I was lucky enough to save my bottom right 1st molar. They had to do a root canal and put on a crown, they were barely able to save it, maybe I'll have 5 yrs with it if I'm lucky... another thing I am terrified about I also had to get my left bottom 1st molar extracted

So with that all said and done. I can't afford to get a implant for the tooth I had extracted. Especially now that I am 6 months pregnant, there is no way I can afford to put 3000 on a single tooth. I was recently at the dentist to have a cleaning and they want to extract my top 2nd molars when the baby is born. Sometimes I feel that having my top molars badly chipped is effecting the way I talk too and when I have them extracted it's only going to make my speech ever worse. God I am dreading it because I don't know if I can afford partials for it, but I'm praying to god that I'll be able to use my wisdom teeth that haven't come in yet to replace them. If anyone has any stories like that please share

Since I was 18 i've been living in fear that I'll have no teeth left by the time I'm 30. I live with soo much regret because these extractions could have been avoided if I would have just went in and had them fixed, especially with a dentist I trusted. I feel so depressed everyday, and worthless. I'm soo scared to tell my boyfriend whom I live with about this, and some days I feel like it tears us apart I feel like he should be with someone who is perfect, and happy. I feel so embarrassed and inadequate. I'm constantly comparing myself to others and I hate it. I think everyone's better then me, I have terrible low self-esteem. Having terrible teeth and TMJ, I feel like my life is worth nothing most days and I can barely get out of bed.
 
You've got nothing to be ashamed of, I think you are brave to tackle this problem before it's too late.

TJM problems can be treated, so can clenching, but not unless you decide to seek help for this.

I have a front tooth that was restored with a plastic filling, it came out chipped because the baby tooth above it was knocked out when I fell down the stairs as a baby. Some dentists make beautifully restored front teeth with just bonding, and mine looks OK too, most people don't notice. The good thing with this kind of restoration is that it's minimally invasive, there is very low risk of damaging the nerve in the tooth, unlike a crown preparation, that takes away a lot of natural tooth, and if the bonded restoration becomes damaged or falls off, it's cheap and fast to replace. I don't want a crown on my front tooth.

I don't think that the loss of a back tooth or three is going to affect your speech, but I'm sure the dentists here can answer that.

Your boyfriend should support you in difficult times as well as in good. The fact that you have problems does not make you worthless.

I think you are depressed because of other things than your teeth too. Just a guess.
 

Similar threads

S
Replies
8
Views
580
FrightenedJerk
F
C
Replies
11
Views
1K
Cinkat84
C
Back
Top