H
helpmex
Member
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2018
- Messages
- 65
See my previous post:
https://www.dentalfearcentral.org/forum/threads/fearful-30-year-old.24588/
Hello all,
Welcome to my journal. I have decided to start a journal to document my journey for a new me. I have included a link to my prior posts in the Support forum where I received multiple supports from everyone here.
For those who rather see everything in one place, you can proceed to read the following background information. For those who have followed me through my other posts, you can skip this part
It all started when I was 8 years old, where I stopped going to the dentists due to a painful experience. Ever since then I never went back to a dentist no matter how many teeth were breaking, or how many holes I was getting. It got up to the point where I started to have 3 missing teeth, 5 cracked teeth, and holes behind my front teeth. My bottom front teeth are all crooked and they are shifting even more because of the missing teeth. I had a really bad infection and went to a dentist that scammed me of my money. Fast forward to when I was 30 and found this forum, I decided to post my concerns here. Even with all the support, I still never made any appointments. Last month one of my chipped teeth completely chipped off, and that's when I decided that was it. It was very visible, I could not smile, I could not talk, and I could not enjoy myself and be the person that I am. I was very embarrassed of my teeth.
My main fear is of judgement, fear of treatments, and fear of costs. I don't have any fear for pain because I have high pain tolerance. I can handle needles with no issues.
So I made me appointment for 1/30/19. It was with a dentist, highly recommended from one of my family members. Throughout the whole appointment making, the receptionist made me feel really comfortable. I went in, did x-rays, the technician who did the x-rays was not really pleasant so I thought I was going to leave right there. She kept urging the dentist to come look at my x-rays, and that it's better for him come look and all of that. So he came and look at my x-rays, he discussed with me about what was going on with my mouth, as I already knew the consequences. Here are the treatments that needs to be done, total of 7 extractions, 6 bone grafts, multiple root canals, cavities, and he needs to refer to me an oral surgeon to get the wisdoms removed because two is impacted, and one is cracked and not needed. He also recommended braces once everything is done to straighten my bottom teeth and fix my bitewing.
So you can imagine how overwhelming this was for me to hear him say all this to me. I felt like it was going to be a lot of mental stress. He told me not to worry and that he will take care of me. He was very sincere, and he asked me what do I want to prioritize first, and I told him the tooth that is visible at the moment, and he was ok with that. So we scheduled another appointment for yesterday 2/14/19 to start the extractions.
So now about my experience yesterday. He went through the whole procedure with me again, telling me what he's going to be doing, explaining the healing process and what the next steps were. Yesterday's procedure was to do 3 extractions on the upper left top and bone graft on them as well. My insurance did not cover the bone graft, but they were necessary to help me heal for implants. It was $400 USD each. Extractions copay was $50 each and I also requested a flipper for the visible tooth which was not covered. So yesterday's payment was $1700. Scary right?
Anyways, so he started to numb my gums with a numbing gel, and proceeded with the first novacaine shot. Was fine, and I lost count how many times he insert novaciane but the taste was disgusting. So after maybe 2 more novacaine shots I was nice and numbed, didn't feel a thing. I was very tensed because the pressure was insane. I definitely DID NOT like the pressure I was feeling. I felt like I was getting drilled to my brain. Anyways, so while doing the first tooth, there were a few cracking sounds, and he told me to just ignore the sounds, and asked if I needed headphones. I told him I was doing ok. He was literally asking me how I was doing every 5 minutes. So the first tooth is out and he moved on to the next one, again major pressure. I don't know what he had to use but I think he used a saw like thing to split the tooth so he'll remove root by root. He did have a little trouble removing it, but he told me he wants to do it nice and slow so that he won't damage anything and to preserve as much as possible. So the second tooth took a little while to remove. Come the third tooth, the most complicated one. I started to feel pain so I said "ow" and he gave me more novacaine. So he told me that tooth was severely decayed, and that one of the roots have twisted itself and it was very hard to remove. He told me that I'm giving him a challenge, but he says he likes challenges, lol so that kind of made me chuckle a little. He wanted to do another x-ray on that last root just to see what he's working with. Once the x-ray was done, he figured it out, and with A LOT of pressure, he removed it, and the hard part was over. That took almost 2 hours for all three. My mouth was completely sore and I felt the side of my lips was split open from opening my mouth. He then proceeded to clean out all infections or abscess that was there. After it's all cleaned out, he proceeded to do bone grafts on all three. He showed me what was being put up there and explained to me where he got it from and all that stuff. Anyways, after bone graft was done, he sutured my up, and it was definitely a lot of stitches. At that point the novacaine was slowly wearing off and I told him I feel the stitches. He asked if I wanted more novacaine, and I said no because he was almost done. AFTER the stitches, we did impressions for the flipper, which was very gross. I was surprised I did not gag, but I was terrified that my other teeth were going to fall off when he took it out of my mouth lol, but surprisingly it didn't.
And with that I was done. He told me it was a rough procedure, and that I did very good. Him constantly asking how I'm doing, and assuring me, and telling what his steps are made me feel at ease. In two weeks I will be going back to remove the stitches, and he said I can decided if I want to proceed with the next 3 extractions or take a break. I will decide then. I was prescribed ibuprofen 800mg and amoxicillin antibiotics to take. When I got home I was in a little pain. My mouth is sore and felt a little discomfort. I didn't sleep much because I was worried about the pain, or the stitches. Today I feel very sore, slight pain, almost like someone punched me in the face. A little discomfort because I can't really speak nor open my mouth. I am STARVING lol but I've been eating just yogurt and drinking water.
Well that was A LOT of typing, for those who actually read the whole thing I appreciate it. I hope my story will help others with the same fear to go ahead and get it done.
Thank you all again for your support, and I look forward to sharing more with you guys!
https://www.dentalfearcentral.org/forum/threads/fearful-30-year-old.24588/
Hello all,
Welcome to my journal. I have decided to start a journal to document my journey for a new me. I have included a link to my prior posts in the Support forum where I received multiple supports from everyone here.
For those who rather see everything in one place, you can proceed to read the following background information. For those who have followed me through my other posts, you can skip this part

It all started when I was 8 years old, where I stopped going to the dentists due to a painful experience. Ever since then I never went back to a dentist no matter how many teeth were breaking, or how many holes I was getting. It got up to the point where I started to have 3 missing teeth, 5 cracked teeth, and holes behind my front teeth. My bottom front teeth are all crooked and they are shifting even more because of the missing teeth. I had a really bad infection and went to a dentist that scammed me of my money. Fast forward to when I was 30 and found this forum, I decided to post my concerns here. Even with all the support, I still never made any appointments. Last month one of my chipped teeth completely chipped off, and that's when I decided that was it. It was very visible, I could not smile, I could not talk, and I could not enjoy myself and be the person that I am. I was very embarrassed of my teeth.
My main fear is of judgement, fear of treatments, and fear of costs. I don't have any fear for pain because I have high pain tolerance. I can handle needles with no issues.
So I made me appointment for 1/30/19. It was with a dentist, highly recommended from one of my family members. Throughout the whole appointment making, the receptionist made me feel really comfortable. I went in, did x-rays, the technician who did the x-rays was not really pleasant so I thought I was going to leave right there. She kept urging the dentist to come look at my x-rays, and that it's better for him come look and all of that. So he came and look at my x-rays, he discussed with me about what was going on with my mouth, as I already knew the consequences. Here are the treatments that needs to be done, total of 7 extractions, 6 bone grafts, multiple root canals, cavities, and he needs to refer to me an oral surgeon to get the wisdoms removed because two is impacted, and one is cracked and not needed. He also recommended braces once everything is done to straighten my bottom teeth and fix my bitewing.
So you can imagine how overwhelming this was for me to hear him say all this to me. I felt like it was going to be a lot of mental stress. He told me not to worry and that he will take care of me. He was very sincere, and he asked me what do I want to prioritize first, and I told him the tooth that is visible at the moment, and he was ok with that. So we scheduled another appointment for yesterday 2/14/19 to start the extractions.
So now about my experience yesterday. He went through the whole procedure with me again, telling me what he's going to be doing, explaining the healing process and what the next steps were. Yesterday's procedure was to do 3 extractions on the upper left top and bone graft on them as well. My insurance did not cover the bone graft, but they were necessary to help me heal for implants. It was $400 USD each. Extractions copay was $50 each and I also requested a flipper for the visible tooth which was not covered. So yesterday's payment was $1700. Scary right?
Anyways, so he started to numb my gums with a numbing gel, and proceeded with the first novacaine shot. Was fine, and I lost count how many times he insert novaciane but the taste was disgusting. So after maybe 2 more novacaine shots I was nice and numbed, didn't feel a thing. I was very tensed because the pressure was insane. I definitely DID NOT like the pressure I was feeling. I felt like I was getting drilled to my brain. Anyways, so while doing the first tooth, there were a few cracking sounds, and he told me to just ignore the sounds, and asked if I needed headphones. I told him I was doing ok. He was literally asking me how I was doing every 5 minutes. So the first tooth is out and he moved on to the next one, again major pressure. I don't know what he had to use but I think he used a saw like thing to split the tooth so he'll remove root by root. He did have a little trouble removing it, but he told me he wants to do it nice and slow so that he won't damage anything and to preserve as much as possible. So the second tooth took a little while to remove. Come the third tooth, the most complicated one. I started to feel pain so I said "ow" and he gave me more novacaine. So he told me that tooth was severely decayed, and that one of the roots have twisted itself and it was very hard to remove. He told me that I'm giving him a challenge, but he says he likes challenges, lol so that kind of made me chuckle a little. He wanted to do another x-ray on that last root just to see what he's working with. Once the x-ray was done, he figured it out, and with A LOT of pressure, he removed it, and the hard part was over. That took almost 2 hours for all three. My mouth was completely sore and I felt the side of my lips was split open from opening my mouth. He then proceeded to clean out all infections or abscess that was there. After it's all cleaned out, he proceeded to do bone grafts on all three. He showed me what was being put up there and explained to me where he got it from and all that stuff. Anyways, after bone graft was done, he sutured my up, and it was definitely a lot of stitches. At that point the novacaine was slowly wearing off and I told him I feel the stitches. He asked if I wanted more novacaine, and I said no because he was almost done. AFTER the stitches, we did impressions for the flipper, which was very gross. I was surprised I did not gag, but I was terrified that my other teeth were going to fall off when he took it out of my mouth lol, but surprisingly it didn't.
And with that I was done. He told me it was a rough procedure, and that I did very good. Him constantly asking how I'm doing, and assuring me, and telling what his steps are made me feel at ease. In two weeks I will be going back to remove the stitches, and he said I can decided if I want to proceed with the next 3 extractions or take a break. I will decide then. I was prescribed ibuprofen 800mg and amoxicillin antibiotics to take. When I got home I was in a little pain. My mouth is sore and felt a little discomfort. I didn't sleep much because I was worried about the pain, or the stitches. Today I feel very sore, slight pain, almost like someone punched me in the face. A little discomfort because I can't really speak nor open my mouth. I am STARVING lol but I've been eating just yogurt and drinking water.
Well that was A LOT of typing, for those who actually read the whole thing I appreciate it. I hope my story will help others with the same fear to go ahead and get it done.
Thank you all again for your support, and I look forward to sharing more with you guys!