• 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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information / help/ advice please

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dddsupermo

Junior member
Joined
Feb 15, 2008
Messages
2
Hi everyone,

i am new to this site and like everyone else i am absolutely terrified at the thought of going to the dentist following several bad experiences and no matter how much i tell myself to relax and just get it over with i can't - i just can't go back.
i know i'm going to need a fair bit of treatment and even typing this up i'm feeling really quite sick and weepy and i'm not a squeemish person because i'm a staff nurse and just too embarrassed and afraid to own up.

Does anyone know of any dentists in highland region who are good with people like me -there is no-one in Caithness and i don't know where else to turn -my back teeth are a mess and i'm so ashamed and afraid at thought of having to show them to anyone -one tooth is completely broken with just a tiny, tiny piece above gum line so i kow it will have to come out somehow and another one is cracked.

please if anyone in this area knows somewhere or knows of someone who has been treated by a dentist used to treating people like me please, please let me know. I am willing to travel if necessary hopefully not any further than Inverness as i'll have to have hubby to drive and time off work etc.

thank you so much for this site

Mo:cry:
 
You can take a look right here on the forum-- there's a whole section where we've all recommended the dentists who have helped us!!

Look under "Dentist Reviews and Recommendations". Hopefully there's someone near you!
 
Hi DDDsupermo
:welcome:to the site. Be reassured this is the first step in getting yourself sorted out dentally.
i am new to this site and like everyone else i am absolutely terrified at the thought of going to the dentist following several bad experiences and no matter how much i tell myself to relax and just get it over with i can't - i just can't go back.
How long ago were your bad experiences? Sometimes the way round this is to say 'modern dentistry is invariably painless' things have changed - you will be pleasantly surprised but if your bad experiences were fairly recent that won't wash with you and quite rightly so. All dentists are not the same....but then that's actually probably a good thing.

Basically the key to it all is firstly to want to do sth about it - I think you are there; and secondly to find Mr/Mrs Right Dentist for you. This is so important and while a dentist who is right for one person will not appeal to another...the type of dentist who can help phobics/nervous patients overcome their fears is going to have quite a few characteristics in common....such as sympathetic attitude, good friendly reassuring chairside manner and ability to perform procedures including injections comfortably, patience, a non-judgemental attitude and a desire to help would be three others.

The good news is many dentists have these qualities; the bad news is they are easier to find in the private sector although if you go down the Community Dental Services route in the NHS on the basis of being phobic, you would find them there as well...armed with all the sedation options available to modern medicine up to and including GA. You could get lucky with a local NHS dentist too but you have much less control over who you see and the appointment slots tend to be rather short not allowing much time for TLC.

Many posters find TLC from a dentist they 'click with' is all they need, some use sedation at first as well to get through initial major treatment and then attend every 6 months thereafter.

know i'm going to need a fair bit of treatment and even typing this up i'm feeling really quite sick and weepy and i'm not a squeemish person because i'm a staff nurse and just too embarrassed and afraid to own up.

Embarrassment is very common and phobics fall into a vicious cycle of the worse their teeth become, the more embarrassed they get and hence the harder it is to get treatment and so on. Maybe your professional experience will help you here....do you ever look down on your patients? No, then why would a good dentist look down on you because your fear has kept you away? It is their job to fix teeth..it would be boring if everyone who came in had perfect teeth...in fact they'd be out of business.

Does anyone know of any dentists in highland region who are good with people like me -there is no-one in Caithness and i don't know where else to turn

There's a new dental unit in Caithness. You could phone the dental helpline and saying you are phobic.

-my back teeth are a mess and i'm so ashamed and afraid at thought of having to show them to anyone -one tooth is completely broken with just a tiny, tiny piece above gum line so i kow it will have to come out somehow and another one is cracked.

Gordon our Scottish-based resident dentist in the Dentistry Questions section always says broken down teeth are easier to extract because there is no crown to get in the way...your teeth will not be the worst the dentist has ever seen ....no need to be ashamed although I know you are, because legitimate fear from bad experiences has kept you away. A good dentist will understand that...what you do now is what matters, the past is the past.

thank you so much for this site

Glad to be of service - hope this helps.
If you are willing to travel to a private dentist, there are a lot of recommended ones in Scotland as per this link:


If you post back with what your particular fears are, we can probably give more specific advice....this link covers many of the common fears https://www.dentalfearcentral.org/fears/
...there are solutions and ways round most everything.....by the way you are not the first nurse to post on here...we have even had dental nurses suffering from dental anxiety post on here before! Oh and the children of dentists lol!
:grouphug: :jump: :jump:You can do it - we can help you through it.
 
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