I feel too far gone....

[leconn]

I am a new poster! I have had so many dental issues during my adult life and I feel too scared right now to seek out dental care.

I have two broken teeth upper right, one broken on lower right and just lost a crown on the upper left. The only part of my mouth that is good is the lower left and the front. I hate the empty space on the side of my mouth but I am too paralyzed to do anything about it. I am an attractive 48 year old woman; I am well educated, well spoken, well dressed; hold down two responsible jobs and also have raised two awesome teenage boys by myself. I take care of myself physically with the exception of my teeth. I have the most absolute, horrific fear of the dentist; the office; the smells, the pain, the needles. My blood pressure goes up just thinking about it and my chest gets tight. I am so scared to go to the dentist; I am scared of the embarassment, the shame, the derogatory remarks, the condescending manner of the dentist and the assistants and I don't know what to do. I don't discuss my dental fears with anyone and even though I know my boyfriend has had to notice something, he has never said anything and I have never brought it up.

I want to have my teeth repaired but I'm too scared to do it. I'm afraid of the pain and the cost. I'm so embarrassed by my smile that I don't show my teeth anymore when I smile and I cover my mouth when I laugh.

My dental insurance is changing January 2010 to a carrier that will partially cover implants, but I'm sure it won't be a lot.

Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[rubyshoes]

You know I don't believe there's anyone in the world as phobic as I was/am

All I can tell you from personal experience is - the pain from not getting the teeth fixed will ultimately be far worse than anything they will do. And the longer you leave it the more expensive it will be. IV sedation removes a lot of the fears, drills, needles, smells, you're just not aware of them. There's so much more understanding these days of nervous/phobic patients too.

Chosing the right dentist for you I think is the most important thing. You can do it finding this site and posting is a huge step and the thing is to take it a step at a time rather than think about the whole situation. One step at a time will get you all the way there

ruby

 

[monkey]

You will do just fine if you find the right dentist! There won't be any judgement or lecturing.

Just make sure you explain your situation when making the appointment. They will be expecting it at your appointment and will be prepared to do everything to make it a good experience (and don't forget to bail if they don't! ).

I let my teeth get so bad that it was ruining my life and there wasn't any judgement from the dentist. I was instantly relieved when I saw how he handled the situation (I am also much too young to have teeth this bad and there wasn't any lecture about that either). I wasn't even scared to go back for treatment!

The pain from bad teeth is way worse than anything you will experience at the dentist. You won't feel a thing during treatment.

You can do it!

 

[April]

Hi leconn

All of us this site know exactly what you are going through, you are not alone.

I am the same age as you and now consider myself to be a recovering dental phobic - allbeit only recently.

I started my journey by sending an email to a dentist who had been recommended to me, I know you don't like to talk about it, I was married for 4 years before my husband had any idea about my phobia, but does your boyfriend have a dentist he uses? If you don't want to talk to him about it maybe the first step is to show him this website and the email you posted. it is written very well and sums up how you feel.
Maybe the next step would then be to send the same one to a dentist, which is what I did and he rang me and invited me into the car park for a chat!!

There are compassionate, caring dentists out there and dentistry has come a long, long way since our childhood.

Take baby steps and you will get there, everyone here will, understand, support and encourage you every step of the way.

Keep posting .......