S
shinyonne
Junior member
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2018
- Messages
- 18
My list of medical and dental phobias is too long to list and getting worse over time. Needles, drills, blood pressure cuffs, instruments poking in my mouth, things holding my mouth open and making me afraid of choking, those little tongue depressor sticks.
I’ve had plenty of scary dental procedures (being afraid of the dentist and therefore avoiding routine cleanings will cause that!)
After a recent bout of horrific, unrelenting pain in a wisdom tooth 24/7 for 2 weeks with no relief, I finally went to a dentist. My old dentist, the only one I trusted, recently retired. So I had to see a brand new one. (*stress*)
He referred me to an oral surgeon to extract the tooth. Also someone I’d never seen before.
I opted for IV sleeping sedation. I’ve never had that before and been too scared by it — needles, unconsciousness, loss of control, complications, accidentally waking up during surgery.
Anyway, I went through it today and it was — amazing!
Had to deal with wearing a blood pressure cuff, a tourniquet for the insertion of the IV, heart monitors and a cannula in my nose and a pulse oximeter on my finger. So that was a bit stressful. But they didn’t put anything in my mouth while I was still awake.
The surgeon explained exactly what he was doing at all times (“I’m now putting a rubber glove on my right hand”) and chatted with me casually throughout the sedation process.
I was awake, relaxed and talking about my weekend and then the next second I was….done! My husband was in the room getting ready to take me to the car.
I have no memory of going under, nor of the procedure and very little pain. Just a slightly sore jaw.
I’m sooo glad I did that. I’ve had a root canal with just local, an extraction with laughing gas and now IV sedation and the sedation was 100% worth it for any more involved procedure.
If you’re concerned about going under, I hope this gives you some comfort.
Trust me, I was nervous about it and didn’t sleep the night before (I was convinced it wouldn’t work on me for some reason or something would go wrong.) But it was a miracle for anyone with serious dental phobias.
I’ve had plenty of scary dental procedures (being afraid of the dentist and therefore avoiding routine cleanings will cause that!)
After a recent bout of horrific, unrelenting pain in a wisdom tooth 24/7 for 2 weeks with no relief, I finally went to a dentist. My old dentist, the only one I trusted, recently retired. So I had to see a brand new one. (*stress*)
He referred me to an oral surgeon to extract the tooth. Also someone I’d never seen before.
I opted for IV sleeping sedation. I’ve never had that before and been too scared by it — needles, unconsciousness, loss of control, complications, accidentally waking up during surgery.
Anyway, I went through it today and it was — amazing!
Had to deal with wearing a blood pressure cuff, a tourniquet for the insertion of the IV, heart monitors and a cannula in my nose and a pulse oximeter on my finger. So that was a bit stressful. But they didn’t put anything in my mouth while I was still awake.
The surgeon explained exactly what he was doing at all times (“I’m now putting a rubber glove on my right hand”) and chatted with me casually throughout the sedation process.
I was awake, relaxed and talking about my weekend and then the next second I was….done! My husband was in the room getting ready to take me to the car.
I have no memory of going under, nor of the procedure and very little pain. Just a slightly sore jaw.
I’m sooo glad I did that. I’ve had a root canal with just local, an extraction with laughing gas and now IV sedation and the sedation was 100% worth it for any more involved procedure.
If you’re concerned about going under, I hope this gives you some comfort.
Trust me, I was nervous about it and didn’t sleep the night before (I was convinced it wouldn’t work on me for some reason or something would go wrong.) But it was a miracle for anyone with serious dental phobias.
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