• Dental Phobia Support

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Finally Taking Care of My Teeth

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Christinethebean88

Junior member
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
8
Hi everyone. I posted this in support originally but I thought I’d move it here and start a journal of my journey to get my teeth fixed. Hopefully this will help me control my anxiety a little bit going into this next week.

I don’t remember when I started being afraid of the dentist, but the last time I went was maybe 10-11 years ago. Back then, I never took care of my teeth. I rarely ever brushed let alone flossed and mouthwashed. I’ve never been a smoker, but I’ve also never been particularly careful about what I ate and how that would effect my teeth.

About 4 years ago, I started to get serious about taking care of my teeth. I now floss, brush, and mouthwash religiously twice a day, everyday. But I guess we can’t undo the sins of our past. I have one broken tooth, a chunk broke off while eating something hard about a year ago, and all of my back teeth have visible cavities, some of them big black spots. That’s not too mention what might be happening with my front teeth. My gums swell up and bleed sometimes and have been for years. Luckily, I’m not in any pain and other than some mild sensitivity to cold food, I don’t have any actual complaints.

Objectively, I know my teeth are not the worst the world has ever seen, and certainly not the worst a dentist has ever seen, but I can’t help fearing that when I open my mouth my dentist will be too disgusted to even speak to me. Guys, the fear of judgment is so real.

I’m so ashamed of the state I let my teeth get in and I can’t help but obsess over the amount of work and money fixing it is going to cost me. What if they have to pull all of my back teeth?? What if I have 25 cavities?? I can’t stop going to all the worst places.

I know I have to move forward with my life though which is why my husband made an appointment for me for Tuesday (I was too much of a coward to call myself). It’s just a gentle cleaning and X-rays and a check up but I’m freaking out. My husband has been to these dentists and says that they are the nicest around and were so understanding on the phone when he explained my situation. I also know these dentists are specifically sedation dentists so they are probably used to dealing with people in my situation but that knowledge is not helping my anxiety. I’m barely sleeping and concentrating at work seems impossible until it’s over. I just want it to be done and over with so bad.

For now, I’m just trying to focus on how relieved I’ll be when it’s all over and the treatment is completed, no matter how complicated and expensive it ends up being.
 
My appointment is in Tuesday and I’m alternating between calm and complete panic. I’m not sure how that works exactly but it’s true. One moment I’m calm and feeling relieved that I took the first step and the next I’m crying into my husbands arms worrying that all of my teeth will need to be pulled.

i think a big part of the problem right now is the unknown. I’m a person who does not like to feel out of control of anything in my life ever and this is something I truly have no control over. At least I know I’ll feel some relief from that aspect of it once Tueaday’s appointment is over. At least then it won’t be unknown to me anymore. I feel like I can tackle the known much more calmly than the unknown.

im attaching before pictures of the teeth I’m worried about, my molars. I’m fairly certain my front teeth are in good shape, except for the need for a really good professional clean. Hopefully I’ll have amazing after pictures to share in no time.

Does anyone here have experience with teeth that are in the shape mine are?? Do you think they’ll need to pull them all?? Is there hope for me yet??
 

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Hi there! I’m not a dentist but your teeth do not look that bad! From what I can see, I don’t see any that would need to be extracted, let alone all of them! I’m getting 20 pulled on Wednesday but they look 1,000,000x worse. There is ALWAYS hope, btw.

I completely understand what you mean about control, and this is a scary process! Thankfully that office does sedation, as I think that will help a lot.

I’m sending great vibes your way and lots of luck for Tuesday!
 
Well, tomorrow is the day. I slept truly horribly last night but despite that I’m feeling pretty calm about it all this morning. Still, the panic seems to come and go in waves and I’m sure lack of sleep won’t help it any. I just need to get through one more day at work and then a couple of hours tomorrow morning and it’ll be over. The initial treatment anyway, then comes the possibly very long road of fixing any issues.

Will the shame of it all ever go away, I wonder? I’ve set my mind on going, I know facing this is the way to move forward with my life, but will I ever forgive myself for letting it get this bad in the first place?
 
Will the shame of it all ever go away, I wonder?

It will. And being proud of having beaten your dental fear will come in. You are doing great. Good luck tomorrow, look forward to hear how it went :)
(By the way I do not think that you will need extractions either)
 
Thank you so much for the support. It does make me feel better that you both don’t think I’ll need any extractions. I appreciate all the support from everyone in this forum, it truly makes a world of difference.

I’ve been surprisingly calm today. I kept myself very busy at work and just kept my headphones in and my head down. I’ve gotten into a very absorbing television show and have been using it to distract myself outside of work. I’m not sure how I’ll feel tomorrow when the time actually arrives. Probably panicked, but maybe, hopefully, relieved too.

My husband is meeting me there. I would like him to come into the room with me, hopefully they’ll let him, it would make me feel a lot better, safer I guess. But we’ll see. Either way, tomorrow it will be over and with any luck I’ll be able to eat and sleep and breathe again. Even if it’s horrible and everything goes poorly and I hate it, at least it will be over.
 
Will the shame of it all ever go away, I wonder? I’ve set my mind on going, I know facing this is the way to move forward with my life, but will I ever forgive myself for letting it get this bad in the first place?


Yes, yes you will forgive yourself! You are brave and strong...you’re taking steps to move forward. You should be so proud of yourself! I’m glad your husband will be there to support you and I don’t see why they wouldn’t allow him back there with you, especially if it calms you. You’re doing great by distracting yourself- I know it will be hard but try to do that as much as possible tonight.

You can do this! Let us know how it goes! :clover:
 
Well, today is the day. In just a few short hours I’ll be at the dentist. Actually, what I’m trying to focus on is that in a few short hours I’ll be leaving the dentist and it will be over. Not truly over, the works just beginning, but I’m banking on my anxiety being much less after the first appointment. At least I’ll be able to use sedation for the future work that needs doing.

I slept surprisingly well, though I did take something to help me sleep. I’m not sure how I would have done without it. It’s hard to distract myself as much now that the time is just about here, but there’s nothing to be done with that. Hopefully, I can hold it together at work this morning. My husband thinks I should have taken the day off, but I think it would be worse to be sitting at home waiting. At least at work I have a reason to hold it together.

I will update after the appointment. I’m just trying to focus on the relief I’ll feel then.
 
I’m at work and I don’t have time to write properly, but I did it!! It’s done and I’m so relieved! It’s not even as bad as I thought it would be!
 
:jump:Great news! :dance:Congrats and well done! :dance2:

Have a lovely work day and come back soon to give us some details, there can never be enough success stories :)
 
Alright, here it is. I did it! I went to the dentist and it was actually a pretty good experience. I was shaking in the waiting room but decided I could do it without my husband so I left him in the waiting room. The hygienist was extremely nice and understanding and did everything she could to calm my nerves, including talking about everything but my teeth when she wasn’t working on this. That, for me anyway, was perfect. I needed to keep my mind off of what was happening and she did a wonderful job.

After the first look she actually said, “Not too bad!” To which I replied with great disbelief. But she assured me that, though I had cavities, some of what I was seeing when I looked in my mouth was just staining from drinking a lot of coffee. She cleaned that right off for me and in that respect, my teeth look much whiter and brighter.

I was terrified that that I would have gum disease (my father does so I’ve seen first hand how bad it can be) but she said my flossing routine was excellent and I had no periodontal pockets. NONE. I was completely shocked by that, but beyond pleased. If there’s one thing to take away from this part of my journey it’s that even if you’re terrified of the dentist chair, don’t let it stop you from having a good daily dental hygiene routine. Mine certainly saved me a lot of trouble in that respect.

I only saw the dentist for a short time, but he was extremely pleasant and very good about my anxieties. It turns out I only have cavities. A good number of cavities (I’m not sure the total exactly, I think he didn’t want to scare me or shame me by giving me a grand total) but only cavities. He had a very flippant attitude about it, which comforted me. He acted like they were nothing, easily fixed and no big deal. It really made me feel like maybe it isn’t such a big deal after all, even though I still feel some shame about the amount of work and money that will have to go into fixing all the cavities now.

Still, I made it through this whole appointment with minimal tears and no nitric oxide, so I’m calling this a big win!

i go back next Tuesday for the first round of cavities. They will do 4 fillings and I’m assured that they are all simple and quick ones, in and out in and hour. I’ll still probably have 3 more appointments after that as he wants to do a quarter of my mouth at a time, but I don’t feel so anxious now that the initial appointment is out of the way. I’m planning on doing the first appointment with gas to help the anxiety but maybe once I’ve passed that first threshold I can do the rest without.

Thank you all so much for your help and support, I’m not sure how I would have faced today without the encouragement I received on this form!!
 
Well done going to the dentist, good luck with getting the fillings done.
 
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