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Going to my appointment today...

T

Tiffany32

Junior member
Joined
Aug 15, 2017
Messages
11
Any other 30-ish folks here with lots of teeth problems and huge anxiety and fear?
After avoiding the dentist for about 8 years, I'm going in to my appointment today. I feel like I'm going to my death. :shame:
Ive had four kids in six years and no dental care, and as a result I know I'll need extractions and fillings galore. I'm only 32 but I'm pretty sure I'm going to come out of this experience with partials at the very least.
My teeth are stained from drinking coffee non-stop, which is fixable I guess, but my molars are all decaying. They would possibly be fixable, but I think I have a hairline vertical crack in a few, also. My front teeth are decent, but aren't in good condition either.
I wanted to be prepared for what they're going to tell me so I've been obsessively looking in the mirror with a mirror and flashlight to assess the damage myself before going in.
I feel bad for my husband most of all, we have four small kids and I'm going to need months of work to fix things, which means I'll need his help constantly. :shame:
I've been waiting for a good time to start on all of this and putting it off but realize I just can't wait anymore. I've never felt so horrible.
 
Good luck at your appointment if I am not too late.

I still have huge anxiety and fear even though I been going for years, seeing the same dentist 6 years now, but still dont like going.
 
Sending good thoughts your way! Please let us know how it goes.
 
I'll certainly update. Thanks so much for the encouragement.
 
UPDATE!!!

**sorry, this is long!**
So, I wanted to update, but first I should explain why I thought my teeth were so bad, in case it helps someone else. Somehow for me the more detailed posts on here helped me the most (posts where people thought their teeth were falling out and only ended up with one cavity/needing a cleaning weren't very reassuring) so I'll try to be as detailed as possible.. I know a lot of you actually have major, visible, teeth issues and this will hopefully help you see that maybe you don't have as many problems as you think you do, even if you see a mess like I did.
Firstly, I'm 32, and have had four kids in the last six years. So I imagine my body is pretty depleted of calcium, etc. to begin with...
I've lived on coffee (bad for teeth, especially when sipped on all day), and snack all of the time because I generally have no time to sit down and eat a real meal. I don't eat a lot of sweets, but I do eat lots of fruit.
Appearance of my teeth- I have black marks in the grooves/tops of all my molars, some pretty wide and deep. My teeth in front (all but a few) all have a thin, brown to black ridge (one has a black spot) around the base near the gum line, and two of my upper molars are almost completely brownish-black on the side closest to my cheek. They all felt like they were melding into one another or shrinking, if that makes sense. My molars look cracked in various places, and when I used a flashlight and mirror I saw what looked like vertical hairline cracks on almost all my molars. I have visible crazing on my front teeth, uppers and lowers. I had a wisdom tooth break off about a month ago and it was black inside. But wait!! There's more! Lol.
My front teeth felt a tiny bit loose, so my thoughts went to periodontal disease and bone loss.
Also, about year ago I lost a back molar after cracking a piece off of it while chewing ice (oh yes, I am anemic at times and have PICA when I am). It took me a year of living with the gaping hole that was left to get up the courage to get the tooth removed, up until then I used oregano oil on it until the gum actually grew into the open part of the tooth. When he took it out he said it had rotted completely and that's why it broke. So me, being the dental-phobe that I am, stayed long enough for it to be extracted and didn't stick around to face getting the rest of my teeth extracted (what I thought was going to happen based on the state of my cracked tooth- if that one was completely rotten, they must all be).
To top it all off.. **Rolls eyes at self** I have a mild obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety, so that makes dealing with this even harder. I have to stop myself from flossing so much, sometimes if I'm really stressed I'll do it five times a day, and will brush about the same number of times. I think about my teeth all day long. I've lost my appetite and have to force myself to eat for my baby (I'm nursing, she's only a month old). I don't enjoy eating anything, while I'm eating all I can think of is finishing so I can go brush my teeth. Maybe some of you can relate. Maybe I'm just in my own league of crazy. I don't know.


Ok... So here's what happened when I **actually got up the courage** to go to the dentist.
I made my appointment and was a weeping wreck for a week and a half thinking about possibilities. I studied my teeth daily and googled the problems I could see non-stop. I obsessed about the amount of money I was sure I'd have to spend on crowns, fillings, root canals, etc. I have insurance, thankfully, but I'm on a budget and thoughts of the potential cost alone was enough to nearly debilitate me.
The day of my appointment I hadn't slept and felt like I would rather die than hear my diagnosis, but I went anyway. Cried most of the way there.
The receptionist probably thought I was a jerk. Usually I'm super nice to everyone, but I couldn't even muster up a half-smile today. She asked me how I was with a huge, pretty, perfect smile (ugh, another blow to my fragile ego), and I couldn't even answer.
I told the lady doing my X-rays that I had anxiety about the appointment and she was very nice about it (of course, you feel like a child talking about your anxiety out loud, but whatever).
She had the X-rays up on the computer screen and I snuck a look when she went out. Saw lots of shadowy areas and nearly passed out.
The dentist came in (a really nice guy, I was referred to him by friends and he was just wonderful, so kind and direct, not judgmental at all, which I appreciated) and he said he was going to dictate to his assistant what needed to be done with my teeth, going tooth by tooth, to which I nodded solemnly and tried to make my mind go somewhere else as he rattled off codes of some kind. I just laid there, miserable. He poked and clanged his mirror tool against my teeth, also not enjoyable but I just laid there. I wanted it to just be over with.
I finally couldn't take it anymore and asked him the dreaded question- how many of my teeth need pulled? Will I need dentures?
He bluntly told me, 'nope. You just need a lot of fillings', and continued telling his assistant which teeth needed filling.
I need 18 fillings. I have three 2-hour sessions coming up. And I need a cleaning with the hygienist.
That's all.?!???!! To someone who just a minute ago thought she would be wearing false teeth, this was a total miracle.
Also, my gums are in great condition (dentist was surprised, no gum disease, most people have at least a little redness and bleeding).
I need a bridge eventually to fill in the empty spot, and my back wisdom tooth is rotten and needs pulled, I already knew this.. Also I *might* have another molar that may need a root canal. But that's nothing compared to losing all my teeth.
I was so sure the back molars, which were brown and black in various places, were unsalvageable, but he said they just needed fillings. He thought it was pretty funny that I was happy to (just) have a bunch of cavities and nothing major wrong. Probably the happiest person with 18 cavities there ever was.
So there we go. Sooo many years of being afraid and letting my anxiety cripple me from even thinking about calling for an appointment.. I still have to be drilled into, which is another fear I'll have to face, but I will still have my own teeth.
Thanking God for giving me the strength to go, and for a very supportive husband who I made promise to love me the same even if I needed false teeth at age 32.
Hopefully my detailed experience helps someone else on here. Even though many pictures I saw on the internet matched some horrible, irreversible damage I saw in my mouth, it still turned out okay. Only a dentist and X-rays can determine if your teeth are or aren't salvageable!!
 
Wow.. this is super encouraging testimony!! Thanks.. I'm really glad for you its only fillings.. :)
 
Well done going to the dentist, to find out what you need doing, good luck with the fillings
 
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