MAJOR anxiety attacks about teeth removal. Need help ASAP.

[scaredofeverything99]

I am getting all four of my wisdom teeth removed in 4 days... All are impacted. I am going to be under moderate oral sedation, and laughing gas. But I am terrified! I know anxiety makes oral sedation less effective, which actually made me more scared that I'll be too aware. I originally wanted GA or Twilight but I decided against it for several reasons and can't change it now. Does anyone know any ways to get and keep myself calm? I thought about taking a sleep mask to make sure I don't see anything that scares me. But I still need help calming down before hand.

 

[Jennteeth]

Can you ask the doctor/oral surgeon to prescribe you some anti anxiety medication to take an hour before the procedure? That should definitely help calm the nerves before you go and during the set up for the extraction.

 

[Carys]

Do all 4 need to be done at once? Can you split up with appointments so its not so much to deal with in one go ?

Why cant you switch back to GA (even if it means a longer appointment wait)?

 

[Enarete]

I can understand your anxiety about this, wisdom teeth removal really is a scary thing but I can assure you that it won't be near as bad as your anxiety is telling you. I had all 4 removed few years ago and didn't even have medication or laughing gas for it. The longest part was the waiting for the anesthetics to take effect and the rest was totally smooth. After just few minutes the doctor said we were done with 2 teeth and asked if I were ready to do the next two and I was so surprised because I thought he hadn't took out not even one tooth yet.
So imagining that you have medication and laughing gas, you really will be fine.

To calm yourself down - my dentist says that breathing in and counting to 3, then holding your breath and counting to 3, then breathing out and counting for 3 and again holding your breath and counting for 3 helps. When you are breathing like this it has an influence on the biochemistry of your body and it is not possible for panic to get developed. This works for me, but I prefer to count to 4.

I am sure there are a lot of happy wisdom teeth removal stories here on the forum that could help you gain some hope.

The idea with the sleeping mask might be a good one but I am very sure that as soon as you are under medication and gas you won't care much about what you see and what not my experience was that I haven't seen much anyway because the way the dentist works includes angles that makes spotting things very difficult.

Wish you a good luck and let us know how you were doing and hopefully you have a lovely caring dentist that will keep talking to you and put you at ease.

 

[scaredofeverything99]

Do all 4 need to be done at once? Can you split up with appointments so its not so much to deal with in one go ?

Why cant you switch back to GA (even if it means a longer appointment wait)?

I am doing 4 at once bc once it is done Ill won't ever have to worry about having the procedure again. I'll also only have to go through recovery once. Also the dental office I am going to doesn't do GA. If I wanted that I'd have to go to my Oral Surgeon's own office which is father away. It also costs more, I'd have to stay overnight most likely for them to make sure I'd be coming out of the GA okay and I'd rather go home asap. And MOST importantly I am deathly afraid of IVs.

 

[Enarete]

Hey, I am wondering how your appointment went? How are you?

 

[scaredofeverything99]

Hey, I am wondering how your appointment went? How are you?

The procedure went fine, wasn't scary or painful. Only problem is the surgeon could only remove the bottom two as she couldn't see to remove the top two because of my crooked teeth. So before I get them out I need to get me teeth straightened, which worries me for many reasons. But recovery has been pretty easy, frustrating at times, but mostly easy. It's been 6 days since, I'm already off all pain meds, and everything is healing well.