First Hurdle Jumped

[Snowball]

Well I'll post now while I have a spare 5 minutes, as the infant hoards invade at 3:15...

I went for my first appointment! First time in the dentists in 20 years. I didn't cry or scream or run away. (That's a start, right?) And the news wasn't as bad as I feared.

After 20 years total avoidance and this thing playing on my mind constantly... I have to have one extraction, a crown on one (that I had written off years ago as unsaveable as there's only half of it left), and a shedload of fillings, mainly quite small. I dunno how many I daren't add them up. I'd pretty well resigned myself to losing many of not all, having bridges even dentures etc etc. She said the X Ray showed I have no bone loss at all, and pretty good gums for 20 years' neglect although she says I can improve on it - and will have one hygiene session whilst sedated, and another later.

Everything can be done in one go, and I managed to get booked in for the 30 May. So, all being well, I'll have done the whole thing within May. I had visions of endless appointments for impressions and all sorts. She said my teeth would probably be the best she'd see all day!

Then we will work on the phobia.

I can't believe I haven't lost that really minging back tooth. I've made it clear I want deep sedation but not sure she believes I'm hugely phobic as she said she often has patients who can't even get through the door, first time - they stand sobbing at the gate (know how they feel!) And she says she has others who won't even let her look, so she can't examine them under they're sedated. She said she could tell I improved my diet in the past few years as one had 'arrested' decay that she said wasn't a problem.

The only slightly difficult bit was the x ray as my mouth is very small and the film was hurting it a bit but pleased to say I didn't gag like last time I had an x ray. She also used the probe which alarmed me a bit, but am sure if I'd asked she wouldn't have.

The whole thing - with cleaning if they can do it on the day - will take around 2 hours.

Apparently I'm banned from the internet for a day or two as well as she had a patient who spent a lot of ££££ online shopping, the day after her sedation and had no memory of it at all til the goods arrived! (Wehey ebay here I come!)

Very nice lady and around my age which I find reassuring. I mentioned being worried the sedation wouldn't work and was reassured it always does and because she's very experienced she feels she can judge it well. At the end of the day we have to let go and trust, eh? I've been lucky to find a phobia specialist so close to home. After the Big Day I'll put a review up.

Can't quite believe it, but all things being well, 4 weeks today the whole thing will be sorted in one go. I had psyched myself up for dentures, so the cost of the whole thing is about what I thought they'd be costing!

Really knackered now - several sleepless nights in a row! But got to go pick boys up soon and then cooking etc - I'd love to just crash to be honest. Don't feel as relieved or 'up' as I'd imagined, but that's just exhaustion I think! Plus the worst bit's to come. Only problem is finding childcare for The Day as my appointment is in the afternoon, around 'home time' but if I'd waited for the next slot, it would have been July so we will sort something out. This way I'll be done before summer starts properly.

Still can't believe after 20 years I only need 1 tooth out - must be all the chewing gum I get through!

 

[scaredstiff]

Well, that really is good news!
So well done, I am so pleased for you. That really is marvellous news and I bet you probably were thinking the worst and counting up all the money you would have to fork out. Just think how much you are now not going to have to spend on dentists which could perhaps be put to better use - clothes, make up frivolous things!After all, what better way to celebrate.

 

[Snowball]

Yes scaredstiff - whole thing is going to cost over £800 but tbh, I was expecting to end up with a bridge or something and paying double that. It's money I don't have (credit card) but once it's done, I will feel confident enough to go and do a bit of supply teaching. So I look at it like this, 800 quid is only a couple of weeks' wages, supply. Will probably just go hell for leather for several weeks and pay the credit card right off. I've got a place on a 10 week TDA course for returning teachers starting Sept and doing the dental thing will give me the confidence to earn the money to pay for the dental thing! Daft eh?

I think I was very very lucky indeed - moral of that one is - I was very lucky, and hopefully the story so far will encourage others to take the plunge and go as I was convinced I needed them all out and probably loads of complicated perio stuff doing - you name it - and if you look back on other people's stories here, this seems to happen a lot that you build it up in your mind then get in there and discover there's less needs doing than you thought. That said, I think I was unusually lucky and really wouldn't recommend anyone leaving it 20 years (or even 2 years!) on the assumption you might 'get away with it'. Not worth it.

Another thing I couldn't have anticipated is - I'm now regretting not going sooner even more. Just think how great my teeth could have been, given a little bit more education on hygiene, etc - if I'd done this well by changing my diet and cleaning as well as I could - maybe had I gone at the first problem, 19 years ago, I'd have had really good teeth!

My main concern is obviously the procedure on the 30th, and beyond that, that I start going very regularly and fighting down the phobia properly.

 

[Geraint]

Well done Poodeloo,
I look forwards to reading how you get on. Ihave read yor message to me recomending a dentist in York. I look forwards to hearing how you get on

 

[FinnishGirl]

Apparently I'm banned from the internet for a day or two as well as she had a patient who spent a lot of ££££ online shopping, the day after her sedation and had no memory of it at all til the goods arrived! (Wehey ebay here I come!)

Sounds good to me to not go online the same day. When I had my wisdom tooth operation with valium, I decided beforehand not to write anything to any forums after it, as I might write something silly and regret it later. Here I can edit, of course, but I write as guest to many forums... So my success story is from the day after.

 

[Snowball]

Re: Hold Me Hand, Someone: Poodle's Journal

[This post was copied from the Journals section to provide some more details - unfortunately I can't reverse the order, so you may want to read the second post in this thread first before reading this one. - admin]


You lot don't need telling that was the hardest thing I've ever done. I managed to wander round Acomb (charity shop heaven!) for ages beforehand, as we were worried about being held up in traffic so set off super early (Friday's race day in York). So I'd been walking round for 2 hours by the time I went in. Was a bit late going in, even though we went to lengths to avoid sitting round as patient before me over ran a little.

I wanted to cry not just due to what I was facing but also because as I posted before, my dad (to whom I was very close, he was there for me for 46 years and got me through many hard times) died last year on May 30 (yesterday's date) and in the afternoon. So as I was walking in to the dentist's I was thinking *This time last year we were going shopping with the boys*. The phonecall to say dad had gone, came as we were walking round Tescos, unbelievably! He lived 200 miles away and we had spent the day before with him, saying our goodbyes. I knew if I thought of dad, I'd start crying and then probably not stop under the sedation!

I took his cap badge from when he was in the paras in with me - hidden in my pocket - to make me brave!

I went in and was feeling calmer than expected but when my dentist did the blood pressure and pulse - both were through the roof. She deals with nothing but phobics and anxious patients all day, so that worried me that I appeared worse than most. I'm not a crier or fusser of obvious panicker - from my job I've just been trained to appearing really calm and stuff, and I can't shake that, but it can go against me in some situations.

My dentist had the most brilliant manner I think of any doctor or dentist or person medical I have encountered in all my years... She is super friendly and as reassuring as it is possible to be. But still my pulse and BP stayed high. Last minute questions were ran through.

Then she broke the bad news. Treatment plan had been to do everything in one go - but now she said we might not get through it all today. What was bothering me most was the wisdom tooth decayed down to the roots and the badly damaged (I thought unsaveable) tooth next to it. Bottom right. So she's start there, and work her way round and hopefully do as much as she could, but the limitation was on the LA (she had already reassured me because I have never numbed up in the past for other medical things, this was a state of the art LA, and more powerful than those usually used) - that she would work as long as she could, hopefully getting some of the left side done too, as long as the LA worked. I was a bit gutted although I also knew she was probably just being cautious. I didn;t want to go back for some fillings - I told her I hoped she could do as much as poss, so I could start with a clean slate.

I am not needle phobic so had the canula straight away with no numbing gel (not a problem - she said afterwards 'That's the worst bit over' but it wasn't remotely painful or uncomfortable). I was sure everything to come would be far worse than that.

Anyway, with the IV line in - I still felt fully conscious.
*Oh bugger here we go* I thought. Knew I was going to be one of those ones in the 'bell curve' that almost unresponsive to drugs, or this drug. Dentist said *Oh you are nervous love, aren't you?* - BP still not down and I was still fully awake - *But never mind, I know just what to do!* and she must have gone and added something to the IV.

She had said she'd do the extraction first followed by the huge filling. I don;t remember either of those being done. But then I was fully conscious for the rest of it, 100%, so it felt to me, I knew where I was, what was happening, and could hear every word of the conversation the three of the ladies had, but I wasn't bothered what went on as I quickly realised - I couldn't feel what they were doing!

So although I wanted to be totally out of it , sleep through it (or imagine I'd slept through it) and 'wake up with everything done' as the majority of people seem to experience - for me, it just wasn't like that.

I also didn't doze back off after the first half hour or so - and I thought if this starts bothering me, I will ask for heavier sedation. Thing is, I could have done that - beforehand I was imagining you'd have a muscle relaxant so be unable to move, but apparently OK and unable to signal anything, but frankly I could have talked, moved or told them if I started to feel anything. And I just didn't! I could open my eyes too, and when they said something funny, felt myself smiling (even mid drill!) Amazing! I'm not sure if she knocked me right out for the first bit then gently reduced the level of sedation, to show me there was nothing to be scared of (there wasn't - I was fully conscious for at least an hour, whilst they did a shedload of deep fillings and I honestly felt NOTHING!) Or whether my body isn't just resistant to the point of making the sedation less effective but either way for me this has been a result as if I'd been zonked out of it, like I thought I was going to be - I'd not have tackled the phobia, which is as much my aim as sorting the teef. I remember nothing about the right side, but was fully aware when she was putting the LA in the left side (painless) and topping it up later (painless) and doing the drilling (painless) and filling (painless). I heard every word of conversation. I felt great because I knew I could easily have asked for the sedation level to be increased - but I didn't ever, once feel the need to.

I think my dentist is canny and experienced and knew I could probably cope with a lot more than I thought.

I did not have the other effect of Midazolam either, that time is sort of ellided, so you feel like 2 hours is 1 minute, or 20 minutes - I felt the time passed 'in real time'. I think in the last half hour in particular, the sedation was extremely light, because I can still remember everything but I don't remember anything that worries or upsets me. At several points I even opened my eyes. They asked me if I was OK loads of times, and once I did the thumbs up and I heard one of the nurses say *Aw look she did a thumbs up!* like she was really proud of me.

My dentist spoke to me in a lovely way throughout - really caring and reassuring - and the sedation was enough to make me feel happy and co-operative, but I was almost as aware of the procedures as if I'd had none (ALthough I have 0% memory of the wisdom roots and suspect they were hard to extract despite being only roots, as when we finished, I had a final x ray just to check all the roots were out!)

Best of all - we got EVERYTHING done - even a clean. I now have one hygienist appointment, which I'm looking forward to, and I am signing up for Denplan, so I can stay with my lovely dentist and keep up to date so I don't slip back into phobia.

When it was all finished, I told them I couldn't believe how conscious I'd been and yet unbothered by the surgery - and I had heard all their conversation (very reassuring just to hear normal chat going on, too) - they asked me not to blackmail them!

I think I struck the jackpot as I've found a dentist who is not just treating my teef but helping me treat my phobia.

At the end she told my husband that she had got everything done, because I'd been so 'good' and everyone in the room made me feel like I'd done this huge achievement! I also think I might not need sedation next time (maybe just a valium before I go in, to sort out the pulse/BP thing).

I felt I was in capable hands, and my dentist is really caring and a lovely person. I realised yesterday I'd never wanted to have a dentist that was mine - I preferred long periods of avoidance, followed by a quick fix with GA at a hospital, and it comforted me to think I wouldn't even recognise the dentist (who'd seen my embarrassment)in the street if I saw him again. But now I have found a dentist I want to see, and like, and who got me through what was one of the scariest days of my life - and turned it into something positive.

I felt OK enough to go into town afterwards and wander round Borders a bit (naughty) and then went home where I lay down to close my eyes for a few minutes, and promptly slept 7 hours straight. Husband came in a couple of times to feed me but couldn't wake me up - he said at one point I slept with my eyes open! I like to think that was the midazolam wearing off - not taking hold, as I know I was sedated during the procedure- I felt buzzy and content, under the 'fluence. And and I say the whole first half hour or so, on the right side, where I had the major stuff done, I can't remember a thing, just the left side filings (and there were plenty of them!)

On the downside, I had had 7 hours sleep, so watched The Who documentary, then ate a piece of cheesecake, then couldn't sleep all night for excitement that I have: (a) Done IT and (b) Remember it - and wasn't scared! And (c) so long as it's to see my dentist, will happily return!


My first appointment was May 2, and I had everything done yesterday, May 30th. 4 weeks to the day! A month ago, I couldn't imagine even walking in a dentist's - now I've had everything done, thanks to all here and not to mention my lovely dentist (who I'll big up in the reviews later) and the lovely nurses at Acomb Dental, York.

The numbing was amazing - never had it in my life as I only had fillings in the 60s when they just drilled and filled with no LA or anything, then extractions under GA, so yesterday was my first ever experience of LA. The right side started wearing off not long after I walked out, the left took a few hours longer. My nose hurt a bit, but now (11 am, morning after and I came out 5pm yesterday), all back to normal.

PS: Today fine. No swelling, no pain at all, and I can't even tell where in my mouth the needle went in - nothing bruised, nothing problematic. Am taking arnica. It was odd waking up without sharp decayed tooth edges hurting my gums, as I have got used to for the past 10 years. Odd but brilliant!

 

[Snowball]

Weyhey!

I'll spare you the details here (in my journal), only to say I got everything done yesterday, with a lovely caring and competent dentist I'll be recommending in the reviews section, later!

The IV didn't go quite to plan (ie: my plan - to be knocked out in 3 seconds, come round with everything done!) but in the end, that has worked out better for me, as I saw that with a caring, and great dentist, it really is PAINLESS!

Even found myself smiling at her jokes, during.

A month ago I was still living in that awful prison of fear, embarrassment, beginning to isolate myself, etc etc. Now, I'm feeling confident and happy and basically woke up this morning feeling like I'd been let out of jail!

Huge kudos and big for all on here, because without this place, I would still be in that bad place I still was 24 hours ago, the whole of my adult life.

I will be going out tonight to celebrate and raise a few to you all. Websites don't change lives as a rule but this one really has, for lots of us.

 

[brit]

Re: Weyhey!

So glad you've finally posted...I've kept checking in - what a relief to hear...another good Yorkshire dentist on the DentistFinder then!
Congratulations!

 

[sparky1]

Re: Weyhey!

Congratulations! I was waiting to see how you got on.
well done

 

[Mary]

Re: Weyhey!


I am so happy for you.

Great Job

 

[takingflight]

Re: Weyhey!

Congratulations, that's great news!!!! You came a long way in a very short time and showed a lot of people that this fear can be tackled. That's part of the beauty of this web-site, even while seeking out support and advice each and every one of you have been an inspiration to someone else. Thank you for sharing your positive experience!


Pam

 

[mikey]

Re: Weyhey!

Huzza!

 

[FinnishGirl]

Re: Weyhey!

Well done, Poodleoo! I know how you feel - for two weeks ago I was also discovering the fantastic feeling to be free from fears. It feels so great!

 

[Geraint]

Re: Weyhey!

Well done Poodleoo, You've done really well getting all your treatment done in one visit. It also gives me high hopes for when I move to York in a few weeks time

 

[vict4ia]

Re: Weyhey!

That's such great news! Way to go!

 

[Snowball]

Hygienist Visit Done!

Had all my treatment Friday and rang up yesterday to schedule the last thing - an appointment with the hygienist. The receptionist asked *Would you need sedation for that?* - surprised myself as I didn't even hesitate, just said *Oh no!*
*That makes it easier then...*

A cancellation had just come up, so I was offered the appointment - for today! Said I'd just had an extraction, but receptionist said it would be OK - hygienist would avoid it!

No time to think really, so agreed to it. Can't believe I did that!

Went today and although I felt myself tensing up a lot, I had no reason to worry about it - everything fine, in fact quite enjoyable. (Next time I will know I don't need to worry). Hygienist asked when I'd last had a scale and polish and I said I couldn't remember (In fact I could, just to embarrassed to admit it must have been 1968 or 9 - with the school dentist!) She said if she hadn't known how long I'd stayed away, looking at me she'd guess I last had a hygienist appointment 6 MONTHS ago. Blimey Said whatever I was doing was really good - my gums are very healthy, and whatever I'm doing to just continue. (One advantage to being phobic - you learn how to clean your teeth as well as possible to avoid the dentist's)

I'd noticed the patient before me was told to make another appointment for 4 months time - but she told me she doesn't need to see me for 6 months!

Anyway I dropped in the Denplan paperwork as well as a little thankyou card - so now I'm committed to regular dentist/hygiene visits, and as all my first treatment plan work is carried out - can now feel like everyone else. (Although apparently it's only a minority we're in, that go regularly, not just when there's a problem so that makes me feel really great that am now in that minority who go every 6 mths!)

A month ago to the day I stepped in a dentist's for the first time in 20 years. And now am all sorted only 4 weeks later! Haven't had anything done to me that hurt - the only bad thing was my own fear of the unknown - and I did that to myself. Thanks to this site and the great support system we have here!

 

[scaredstiff]

Re: Hygienist Visit Done!

You have done so well in a remarkably short time Poodleoo and you are to be congratulated. Hopd you're not going to desert us now that the treatment is over and done with, but that you'll stick around to inspire and support all the newcomers who are just on the threshold.

 

[brit]

Re: Hygienist Visit Done!

(Although apparently it's only a minority we're in, that go regularly, not just when there's a problem so that makes me feel really great that am now in that minority who go every 6 mths!)

Congratulations again Poodleoo - great that they've got a good hygienist as well.
I think this elite minority used to be around 40% about 20 years ago......I certainly don't believe 60% weren't going just because of lack of time...just shows how widespread some degree of 'dental anxiety' is...

 

[Snowball]

Re: Hygienist Visit Done!

Ta SS and Brit.

Yes, recommend the whole practice - hygienist I saw today, as well as the dentist.

Noticed something great today as well - teenage boy same age as my older sons, and the practice manager (I think it was?) on first-name terms with him, and really friendly, laughing and joking with him - he'd brought them flowers, which looked like a regular thing!

My sons like their NHS dentist a lot, and he remembers vaguely who they are after treating them for the past 18 mths - 2 years - but I doubt he'd recall their names if the record sheet wasn't in front of him - he is so hard pressed, spends such a short time with each patient and there's no time for banter, because of the pressure of time - not at all his fault but the system's.

 

[takingflight]

Re: Hygienist Visit Done!

Congrats. Poodleoo!! Look how far you've come, you have every reason to be on and very proud of yourself!!! And, lucky you to go every 6 months, that shows you are doing an excellent job and that things look great! (I'm on the 4 month plan but perhaps one day I'll graduate!)

Thanks for sharing your story and showing others how much can be accomplished in a short amount of time!