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Not out of the clear yet, BUT I did it, got a wisdom tooth pulled with panic disorder!

A

AnnInFl

Junior member
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Aug 7, 2011
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4
Not out of the clear yet, BUT I did it, got a wisdom tooth pulled with panic disorder!

I was considered by my dentist to be the worst patient she has encountered in 15 years! I suffer from SEVERE panic disorder that keeps me in my home for months at a time and my trip to the drs to get a full work up for this removal was the first time I left my home in 2 months!

Going in the morning of the removal, I had things all planned out. I wanted iv sedation with valium, did not want epi in my local, and wanted to be out of it just enough to still know what was going on. My day did not go as planned...my dentist wanted to use a heavier type of sedation, and I was in panic ready to run out of the office. The dentist asked me what were my fears? I could only think, what were NOT my fears? So I thought, ok..being out of control with deep iv sedation, the iv itself was not a plesant thought, the local (never had a local), the idea of epi in the local giving me a panic attack, and the actual pain after extraction...I think I feared ALL of the entire procedure, beginning to end.

The dentist recommended to me to remove variables from the situation....this some how made so much sense out of all of this. She suggested if I was scared of deep sedation or loss of control, to forgo the sedation and do the extraction with only local. This seemed fair enough, but then I feared the next thing and the next. Her suggestion was getting through one step at a time.

The first step was to get the local, no epi was agreed on. My gum was numbed with a gel first to ease the first shot. I was ok with the first, the second shot inside the gum was quite painful, but I got through it! The came 2 more shots, another on the outside one more on the inside of the gums. Then I got into panic mode again. The dentist explained i had done the worst of it and showed me by poking hard on my gums that they were infact numb and i would feel nothing. So after 10 minutes of breathing and wanting to run, I finally let her do the work to pull the tooth.

I will say it was NOT the best experience in the world, BUT it was pain free for the most part and the one painful shot I had was worth the 3 seconds of pain compared to an abcess that lasts for days before antibiotic relief.

I am now closing in on the end of day 4, very little amount of pain (knock on wood), I did lose my clot, but so far not too bad with pain and hopefully will not get dry socket. The only pain I did have was day 1 and that is to be expected, but each day after it was less and less by a large margin.

I also took this chance to quit smoking, so I have had 4 days of no smoking which acutally feels pretty good!

So anyone that is sitting here reading this, know that I waited a full year to have this wisdom tooth pulled, lost over a month worth of sleep in that year, probably closer to 2 months of sleep combined and all for a fear that I made it through that is now behind me forever!

For those of you waiting, please just go to a good dentist you feel understands you, treats you gently, and get the work done that is necessary. I do hope I never ever have to deal with tooth issues again, but if I do I know I can get through it now without waiting so long to have it taken care of.:)
 
Re: Not out of the clear yet, BUT I did it, got a wisdom tooth pulled with panic disorder!

Wow you should be so proud of yourself!!! You did it!!!! And lived to tell the tale! Panic is a horrible feeling! I know how you feel you & I are a lot alike.

And 4 days with no smoking! Great!!! I had an extraction i put off for years done 2 days ago, I am smoking. But it has not given me dry socket. There was no way I could not smoke AND get in that dentist chair!

you did amazing!!!!:jump:
 
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