• 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.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

My story (thus far)

L

LittleTinMan

Junior member
Joined
Jan 2, 2019
Messages
3
Location
Australia
I hope this is the correct place for this thread.

In my younger years in primary school we had a school dentist on campus. They were mostly new dentists out of university with the exception of a very stern old man that ran the clinic. We were required to goto the dentist every six months and the old man would scold you for not brushing and drinking sugary drinks.
When I was in high school there was no longer the requirement of dental visits so I simply didn’t go. During this time (my teenage years) I developed a taste for soft drink.
In my twenties I still refused to goto the dentist, during this time I also changed all my eating habits to clean whole foods and lost a ton of weight in the process.
I’m now in my early thirties. I’ve watched my brother in law of similar age lose many of his teeth. The remaining teeth are yellow and black. This scares me more than the dentist!
Finally in November I decided enough is enough and took the plunge. It was November and my first appointment wasn’t until December 31.
The month of waiting was awful. In that time I was diagnosed with every conceivable problem by Dr Google. I was making it worse by feeling around with my tongue and making things sore.
The day finally came, I was greeted by the lovely dentist. She sat me down and talked to me noticing how nervous I was and assured me that all will be fine.
A few minutes in she asked me if I drink a lot of soft drinks. At this point I thought it was going to be a repeat of my dentist from my primary school days. It wasn’t at all. She was understanding and happy when I said those days are behind me.
As the appointment went on she was saying numbers and letters to her offsider. Each of the were a cavity. She then went on to do a clean. I had quite a large build up of tartar on my bottom teeth (almost 20 years worth!). This was uncomfortable but not painful. Before I knew it it was all over.
Once I sat up the dentist explained that I had 8 cavities, one of which was very deep. She outlined a treatment plan of a further 4 visits, a booking with a hygienist and xrays for my wisdom teeth (all fine).
While it wasn’t the best news in the world I was elated that there wasn’t any serious work to be done or extractions. I’m sure if I’d gone earlier there would have been far less work.
Please don’t be like me, don’t leave it nearly 20 years because of a bad experience.

I’ll keep adding to this as I go on, so far I’ve been to the initial visit and had two of my fillings done. (The bad one!).
 
Good luck on your journey. No serious work and no extractions. I’m sure you were happy to hear that. Nice.
 
Thanks for your kind words. I was very happy, I had convinced myself that the tartar behind my bottom teeth was gum recession.
Yesterday I had my second appointment for the fillings. It wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as the first session except for when she inserted the ‘barrier tool’ that separates the teeth when she puts the filling in. She put it down to my teeth being quite close together. Once the anesthetic wore off I realised the filling was too high so I booked another visit for today.
Today’s visit was super easy. No needles, just a little bit of grinding and it was all fixed! The dentist joked that I couldn’t stay away from the place now.

This week is the halfway point of my small dental journey. I still have two sessions of fillings and my hygiene visit. Once I get on top of all the current treatments I’m going to book in for some whitening.
I think I’ve conquered my dental fear.
 
What a lovely success story LittleTinMan, congrats and well done! :jump::jump::jump:
Also well done on changing your diet habits, it sounds like you had gone through quite a transformation.
 
Littletinman,

This is a great testimony and encouragement. You are doing great work taking care of all this and sounds like you are in good care and comfortable there as well! This is all great! :thumbsup!::thumbsup!:
 
Hi everyone,

Firstly thanks for your kind responses.
I’m sorry for the belated reply but the final couple of fillings sessions were more of the same. I ended up having two additional sessions. One was to fill a gap that was letting food get caught between two teeth.
Today I had my hygienist clean. She was lovely lady that explained it was all too common that people between 18 and 30 stop going for a while. She was very understanding and non judgmental though.
This visit was the last in my road to recovery. I’ve already booked my next check up and dental clean. I also booked a whitening treatment in 6 weeks time as my ‘reward’.

Do yourself a favour and go. You’ll wonder why you put it off so long!
 
Bravo.

Such courage. Well done.

Enjoy your success. You’ve earned it.

Thank you for posting. You are a fine example of courage.
 
So happy for you, and your story is inspiring!! Thank you for sharing I agree with DG , you are a great example of courage!! and it is paying off!
 

Similar threads

Back
Top