• Dental Phobia Support

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I Finally Did It!

S

Skittles123

Junior member
Joined
Jun 18, 2019
Messages
5
Location
Missouri
Hello all. I'm 35 years old and until very recently I hadnt been to the dentist in over 20 years. My parents didn't take us much as kids and as teenagers we weren't asked or made to go at all. And of course as a teenager I was thrilled to not have to go. As I got older I worked many jobs over the years but never had the option of dental insurance until about 3 years ago. So i signed up for the insurance, but when it came down to it by then I was too ashamed, humiliated and embarrassed by how long I'd gone without going to a dentist and how bad I'd let my teeth get... So I just continued to push it out of my mind as much as possible and await the day I was forced to go and have them all pulled out and get dentures. In my mind I was pretty sure id probably already waited to long to save them at that point anyway. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when my sister confessed to me that one of her front teeth that looked perfectly healthy and had no pain mind you, fell out while she was eating an egg roll during her anniversary dinner with her husband. She was in tears, freaking out and embarrassed. She and I were pretty much in the same boat with how long it had been since we'd been to the dentist. So i understood all to well and felt so bad for her. This was a terrifying scenario that I'd imagined happening to myself many many times... Well, long story short she had no choice but to go to the dentist and face her fears. She told me all about it and how it wasn't nearly as bad as she'd thought and so on. I still wans't totally convinced but realized this was my time to latch onto my my fear of what happened to her, happening to me, and force myself to make an appointment. So after lurking this forum for sevral days and building up my courage from all the amazing posts, I bit the bullet and made my first appointent for about 2 weeks ago. I didn't think it was possible but it truly wasnt as horrible as I had imagined. Everyone was super nice and I didn't feel judged or looked down on whatsoever. I felt like everyone just genuinely wanted to help me. I was honestly shocked. No lectures, no judgment, just kindness. It also turned out that my teeth weren't nearly as bad as I had imagined. One broken tooth that needs to be removed (there wasn't much left of it), 9 cavities to be filled, and eventually the removal of my wisdom teeth. Plus they also said I need a deep cleaning/root scaling and that I have some bone loss from so many years of plaque and bacteria building up below the gum line... hence the urgent need for the deep cleaning. They said I will need cleaning every 3 months also do to bone loss. Not great. But overall not nearly as horrible as I had imagined. Considering I thought they might just call the whole thing a wash and go for dentures. They made me up a dental plan which had me doing the root scaling first in 2 seperate appointments, then 2 more appointments of fillings. Unfortunately The first available appointments for the cleanings weren't until late July though. And oddly now that i know what needs to be done and I see better teeth on the horizon, im actaully really excited to get everything done. I went ahead and booked them though and they said they would call if something opened up sooner. I decided to call today and go ahead and make the appointments for my fillings too (didn't want to get stuck waiting another month and a half for those) and the lady told me she could get me in to do both of those next week. Yay! So I said sure let's do it. But then after I hung up I begin to wonder if that was wise. Should i be doing the deep cleanings first before the composite fillings? Will the cleaning change the color of my teeth? Especially since its been so long since they've had any sort of proffesional cleaning done to them? From what i understand they match the composite fillings material to the color of your teeth, right? So if they do that first and then the deep cleaning makes my teeth whiter or cleaner will the fillings no longer match and look obvious? 5 or 6 of them are right up front on top and will be very visible. Does anyone happen to have experience with this that could give me any advice? I'm still excited but starting to stress a little over this now... I just want my teeth to look decent for a change.
 
I can’t speak to the wisdom of these decisions, but I can speak to your great courage: congratulations!

Well done.

Keep us posted. You’ll do great.
 
Hi Skittles123 :welcome:!
Wow you have come a really long way in very short period of time! Congrats (to both you and your sister) for facing your fears! It always makes me smile to read about people that have been quietly lurking on the forum and have found reading the other posts helpful in moving forward. Unfortunately I am not of much help with answering your questions but they are very good questions. I would suggest posting your question in the “Ask A Dentist” section as it is more likely to be seen there. It also never hurts to give the dental office a call and just ask them to make sure it is ok to proceed with things in that order..sometimes the person doing the scheduling does not have knowledge of the procedures and the order they should be done. Glad you had a great first experience! Please keep us posted!
 
I can’t speak to the wisdom of these decisions, but I can speak to your great courage: congratulations!

Well done.

Keep us posted. You’ll do great.

Aww, thanks so much. Some people will never understand how hard it was to make that first phone call and to walk into that building for the first time.

Your encouragement is much appreciated :)
 
Hi Skittles123 :welcome:!
Wow you have come a really long way in very short period of time! Congrats (to both you and your sister) for facing your fears! It always makes me smile to read about people that have been quietly lurking on the forum and have found reading the other posts helpful in moving forward. Unfortunately I am not of much help with answering your questions but they are very good questions. I would suggest posting your question in the “Ask A Dentist” section as it is more likely to be seen there. It also never hurts to give the dental office a call and just ask them to make sure it is ok to proceed with things in that order..sometimes the person doing the scheduling does not have knowledge of the procedures and the order they should be done. Glad you had a great first experience! Please keep us posted!

Thank you very much! And great idea to post in the "ask a dentist" section. Somehow i missed that forum. I may also call the office and ask or i guess if all else fails I can talk to the dentist himself about it when I get there for my first filling appointment next tuesday.
 
Worst case scenario they may be able to do the fillings that are not as visible first that definitely would not be impacted by the cleaning. Sometimes they do fillings on more obscure surfaces of the teeth or on back teeth that can’t really be seen outwardly so they could start with those.
 
Worst case scenario they may be able to do the fillings that are not as visible first that definitely would not be impacted by the cleaning. Sometimes they do fillings on more obscure surfaces of the teeth or on back teeth that can’t really be seen outwardly so they could start with those.

Yeah, thats a really good point. And actually my first appointment on Tuesday is already for the bottom and back teeth and then the front ones are scheduled for Thursday. So he could probably go ahead and do the scheduled ones Tuesday regardless and then and reschedule the front ones at that point if he thinks it's necessary. Thank you, that makes me feel much better!
 
Perfect! Good luck on Tuesday! Well done for tackling this head on! Let us know how it goes and don’t hesitate to post if you have any more questions before then.
 
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