Made an appointment and very scared :(

[clairethehair]

I posted before Christmas, saying about how I was desperately trying to avoid going to the dentist and praying my teeth wouldn't get any worse....exactly 4 years ago, I had an abscess and the pain pushed me into going to the dentist. A few years previous to that, I'd had a bad experience with a female dentist being quite nasty to me and drilling a tooth when I wasn't numb. That experience really frightened me, and so I suffered with the abscess for about a fortnight before giving up and making an appointment at the same practice. Luckily, despite being terrified, I saw a much nicer lady that time, and the extraction wasn't too bad at all. I also had a tooth refilled at the same time as the filling had dislodged, and she said that I may eventually need that tooth crowning. I was just so glad that I'd had a positive experience and decided to make regular dental appointments.

Unfortunately, the nice dentist left the practice, and I was afraid to see someone else in case I got someone horrible again. So I didn't go back and the years went by......no real problems until last September when I broke a bit of tooth off on the outside, the tooth which had been refilled at my last appointment. I was upset and planned to get it sorted but put it off, now today the filling has come out I've been in floods of tears, and feel so annoyed with myself as I should have got it sorted ages ago. Every time something happens with my teeth I get upset and hate my kids seeing me like this.....even though they're 12 and 16 so old enough to understand, I don't want to make them afraid of the dentist.

My partner calmed me down, and phoned our surgery to see if he could get me an appointment. Unfortunately as I haven't been for 4 years I'm not on the books any more - I can re-register but probably won't get seen until May. I'm not in pain, but have the broken tooth with missing filling plus another broken tooth on the other side. I looked online and found an NHS dentist taking on new patients a half hour train journey from us (we don't drive) I've made an appointment for Thursday afternoon.

This surgery has good reviews although not many people have commented on it, and I realise reviews can be misleading anyway. The receptionist was fairly nice, I mentioned I'm nervous and she didn't really say much about that. Apparently it'll be a half hour appointment as I'm a new patient. In some ways I'm glad to be finally sorting my teeth out as I've been worried for so long, and scared to eat certain things in case something happens, etc. but I'm absolutely terrified

Mainly I'm worried about needing loads of work done, and the prospect of a root canal on my broken tooth with the newly missing filling scares the hell out of me. I'm just worried about the dentist being horrible, being told I need loads doing, painful procedures etc. I can cope with dental work (only had fillings and one extraction though) if I'm numb and it's not too painful afterwards.

The thought of waiting all day on Thursday and then the train journey there is horrible, I'll be on my own (my 16 year old daughter offered to come with me but I've said no) which I don't mind, but I just wish it was over. I'd appreciate some support, thank for reading x

 

[MissJoy]

Congratulations on making that first appointment. The first one is really the hardest. Hang in there until Thursday and try to think of all the positives that will come from this.

I have not needed a root canal but I think there's a chance that I need one also. I was so afraid of it too but after reading a lot online most people says that it does not feel any different than getting filling!! It really puts me at ease to read and hear other people's positive stories. Just steer away from the worse case ones because they feed our nerves and most likely not our case at all.

Goodluck!

 

[Dg6300]

It sounds like you are doing everything right. You are on the right track. You should be proud of your courage.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

 

[tazey]

Hi just want to say good luck waiting is the worst+hopefully it won't be as bad as you think. I would say take someone with you if you can I kno I wouldn't be able to have the guts to go alone as my on going appointments are at a hospital+involve a train journey too.

 

[Enarete]

Dear Claire,

sorry to hear about your experiences.. please do not feel bad about yourself: it's so easy to say 'I should have get it sorted earlier', but this is exactly what dental fear is about - to be too paralyzed and scared to even set a foot in a practice, despite knowing that you should..

It seems to me that you are not sure if you can trust them and if they are suitable for nervous patients and you have this fear of being treated horribly by the dentist. At the same time you do not have much choice because you need the work to get done..

May you get a very nice lovely dentist who will be gentle and makes sure you are absolutely numb before he even touch your tooth. And may you, after this experience, have enough courage to look for a practice you feel comfortable with and a dentist you can trust, to get back to dental health again.. who knows, maybe you'll find a lovely lady again, like back then, as you had the abscess..

Everything is possible with the right dentist, it just takes a bit time and effort and a lot of courage to search.

Last piece of advice: talk to them. Let them know that you have made a bad experience and ask them to make sure you will be numb.

Take care, good luck for tomorrow and all the best, let us know how it went.

 

[clairethehair]

Just want to say thanks so much to all of you - MissJoy, Dg6300, tazey and Enarete - for your lovely replies I really appreciate you taking the time to read my post and being kind.

I'll let you know how my appointment went, 4 hours to go......so scared!

Claire x x x

 

[Zoidberg444]

Best of luck. I hope it goes ok.

 

[tazey]

How did it go?