Irrational Fears - Partial Denture Friday and I am freaking out.

[complikati]

First of all, thanks in advance for reading all of this. You may regret it. lol. Ok so here's my story. Just a little background. I am 35, no health problems that I know of. Just a lifetime hypochondriac and the internet is my worst enemy. Here's what's going on. I have two root canals in each of the pointy teeth on the top. Well, due to lack of money I never got crowns put on them and they are now both broke off down to the gum. The teeth in between are bad too, have had fillings and they are starting to break and look bad. So I just decided to have an upper partial denture put in place and have all 6 front teeth removed. So here's where my fears come in. I'm not really scared of the actual act of getting them pulled, (I've had teeth pulled before and was just fine). Not really scared of the needles either. What I am scared of is all this stuff I have read about having root canaled teeth pulled and the risk of infection is higher, and infection getting in your blood stream, etc. So of course I am panicking that that will happen to me and I will rot to death in the dentist's chair. I was previously told that one of my root canals have a touch of infection in it but nothing that my body isn't taking care of. Ever since that day I have been panicking that when the tooth comes out the infection will start raging throughout my body. I have no pain in any of the teeth, no abcesses, just a horrible fear that something will happen after I get these teeth pulled. I read (online of course) that a special dentist has to extract root canaled teeth and that a regular dentist cant? So that's another reason I am freaking. Also wondering if I need to be on antibiotics? They told me I don't if the tooth isn't bothering me, which it's not, but I was once told (like 10 years ago) that I had a heart murmur after a ER visit for a panic attack and heart palpitations. (it felt like my heart was skipping). I wore a heart monitor for 24 hours and they told me I was fine and it was just my anxiety. But the follow up dr I had to go to because I didn't have a dr at the time (who was about 70) told me I had a heart murmur but it wasn't anything bad. Of course I freaked out about that. So now everytime I am at the dr I have them listen and no one else has ever told me they can hear a heart murmur since. and I've had teeth pulled since then so I haven't really worried about that, I'm just worried about a bad infection post extraction. Or an underlying heart condition that I am unaware of. I just need someone to tell me they have been through this before and it wasn't that bad and that I will be ok. Even if it wasn't, I just need someone to tell me that. lol Thank you!

 

[Sevena]

Hey! Fellow hypochondriac here. Wow do I know what you're going through, especially with the fear of an underlying heart condition. I've had that fear for a good 20 years (I get palpitations sometimes). I had to have all my teeth extracted under general anasthetic, and I remember pre-surgery being asked if I had any heart conditions and saying "No" but thinking to myself "What if I do and it's just not diagnosed?" It doesn't help that my circulation is pretty bad. I was basically convinced I would die while under the GA. I didn't, of course!

Now here's the thing about tooth infections. The chances of you dying to one, or even getting sick enough to be hospitalised due to one, are very very small. And they don't pop up out of nowhere and kill you all of a sudden either. If you had a bad infection, you'd be in a lot of pain and you'd feel really, really sick. You'd have a high fever. And I read someone's account (the only one I've ever actually read by the way) of a tooth infection that did get into their bloodstream, and they had to be hospitalised. The thing was, they were so terribly ill that they knew to call an ambulance. What I'm saying is, not only are these things unlikely, but they're not going to surprise you, either. Your body is really good at giving you lots of warnings if something is up!

With anyone who has extractions, the signs to watch out for are an increase in pain at a state when the pain should be staying the same or going down, plus a fever. Even if this does happen though, it's no cause to panic. What you would do then is contact your dentist (or an emergency dentist if it's the weekend etc) and explain, and that's when you'd probably get a course of antibiotics.

I got several minor abscesses over the years. Some of which made my cheeks swell up! And I had all my teeth extracted. Despite my bad circulation and my palpitations, I didn't even come close to dying You won't either. I promise!

I hope some of this might help!

 

[carole]

Hi I also had a badly infected rct'd tooth for a long time due to dentists neglect, it didn't spread anywhere else not even to the teeth at the side of it.

When you have the teeth are extracted the infection will be cured instantly. Try not to stress too much about this, you won't die in the dentist chair they will be making sure you are okay all the time.

I just had a rct'd tooth out and I was afraid it would break or something drastic would happen but it didn't it took a second to remove with no problems.

I have been know to have a panic attack in the dentist chair and they dealt with it okay. They are trained and have the knowledge to deal with whatever happens so don't worry you will be safe. The bonus is you will feel so much better after getting things sorted out. The dentists on here say that broken down teeth are easier to remove.

All the best to you let us know how you get on please