• 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.

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I did it, completed first appointment in 17 years!

R

Richlove

Junior member
Joined
Feb 17, 2015
Messages
1
Greetings fellow dental phobics my name is Rich, a family medicine physician with a moderate dental phobia. I greatly appreciate your posts over the last few months as they were the catalyst to schedule a dental appointment with my dentist. I dreaded this for days as I had a large amount of calculus buildup and significant amount of biofilm/stain.

I literally just finished my appointment 30 minutes ago. I had nitrous oxide and topical anesthetic with compounded topical lidocaine. My dentist did a manual descaling without the ultrasonic descaler since it was not available. It took my dentist 95 minutes to complete all the descaling but at the end I found out I just had mild gingivitis, no bone loss, no deep periodontal pockets and no cavities.

The nitrous oxide was very relaxing and provided the ability to get through the cleaning with minimal discomfort. My next appointment is in 6 months for a routine cleaning and further stain removal.

If you are on the fence, go ahead and go get a consultation. The nitrous oxide works great and I would not have cared if she had to use local because I was lightheaded and relaxed. I happened to luck out because I brush at least twice a day with a sonicare toothbrush, don't use tobacco and use a waterpik.

Dental care has come a very long way since I was a kid where I had to endure 4 extractions for orthodontics placement and four complicated wisdom teeth extractions. I actually had fun at my dentist appointment today.

finding the right dentist makes a huge difference as well. Find someone who you can chat with and feel comfortable with.

So if you are needing dental work, make the appointment and just do it. Once you get in the chair and the nitrous flows, you will be most of he way there.

Previous dental phobic,
Rich:grin::grin:


P.s. It is awesome to actually feel gaps in my bottom teeth again!
 
Last edited:
Hi :welcome: Thank you for taking the time to tell us how you got on, it is really good to hear that things are not as bad as you feared. :butterfly:
 
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