W
whittler
Junior member
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2016
- Messages
- 11
- Location
- London
Hello everyone. I have a long standing phobia which i am going to have to face up to as the time has come where i can no longer ignore the fact that i need to visit the dentist... i had the most appalling (but not uncommon, it seems) experience as a child in the 1970's which involved a botched extraction and extremely bad reaction to gas and air at the hands of a dreadful dentist. I find it hard to even type that (!) and it took years for me to trust another dentist who happened to be a neighbour on the road where my family lived. He was brilliant. Did loads of work, filled cavities and i was happy and comfortable with him. Then i went to University, lived abroad and came back in the late 1990's, no longer NHS registered, old dentist had retired and i saw someone else for a check up thinking i'd be ok, but noooo - seemingly out of nowhere a full blown panic attack ensued, with much embarrassing gagging during x-ray and floods of tears. I was distraught. Haven't been back since, but tried to be diligent with brushing, flossing and mouthwash over the years. Fast forward and teeth now beginning to worry me due to tartar build up, staining and big old fillings that probably need replacing, BUT the really pressing thing is that yesterday a piece of what i think was a big bit of calculus spontaneously fell off the back of my lower front tooth and i freaked out big time. Lower front teeth now feel really odd. I have quite a bit of tartar build-up there so i am now worried something else is going on. I have an appointment in two weeks (soonest i could get) with my husbands supposedly-very-good dentist, but i am so nervous already, it's ridiculous. Now i'm in a panic that all my bottom teeth are going to fall out due to my own stupid phobia-induced neglect, and while hubby is happy to come and hold my hand he thinks i am being a wimp. It's so hard to try to explain why an incident in childhood should have such a profound and debilitating effect, so much so that it stops you doing something that really is for your own good... i wish i'd faced this earlier, so just wanted to let off some steam... really hope i'm not now firmly on the way to losing my teeth...
