please help.. anyone else with this fear ?

[logical_reasoning]

Hi all. New here, and seeing the dentist on Monday.

I am now in the USA but I grew up in England.. so the dentistry is different there I guess.

Growing up I was very scared of the Dr/Dentist/Hospital.. anything of that nature, and I vividly remember various times as a child and teenager being forced to have gas to put me to sleep at the dentist... I had very crooked overcrowded teeth.. many needed pulling etc... and also as a child I fell on my tooth and it went black .. andt hey had to put me to sleep to remove that too.

Right now I have a chipped tooth. Im an axious person in general, but what gets me .. is this..

Im scared of getting scared... Im scared that when Im at the dentist Im going to freak out, and here in the USA... they use gas... not sleeping gas though.. but Im just petrified of it.. id much rather have a needle.

Scared im going to freak out and they will try and use gas.. I shoudl let them know before hand, but Im pretty shy and I kinda feel stupid about it.

 

[brit]

Just to put your mind at rest, nitrous oxide use in the USA is an optional addition to local anaesthetic not instead of local anaesthetic...you do not have to even try it if you don't want to and not everywhere offers it anyway. Some patients use it for cleanings rather than be numbed up but if you find routine dental cleaning uncomfortable which it doesn't have to be (some hygienists are more gentle than others) , then you can be numbed up for that as well or external numbing gels can be used.

I can understand your concern after gas GA in UK as a child, I used nitrous oxide during childbirth which I am told is more like the dental stuff and it was very different from UK Gas GA.

I am not in the USA but the main difference you are likely to encounter from what I have learnt on here, is a multi-team approach whereas in UK the dentist (in private practices at least) will tend to collect you from the waiting area and stay with you the while time and take x-rays himself....in the USA an Assistant will take you to a treatment area, do x-rays and the dentist will pop along later...
the same applies really as anywhere, if you don't like how you are treated then ask around and try somewhere else.
Let us know how it goes.

 

[scaredinthechi]

Another Brit expat in the US here.

My experience is that they will go with a needle, and only use nitrous for those patients who need help calming down. I was in quite a state and my endodontist didn't feel I was bad enough to warrant breaking out the nitrous even though she had it available. I broke my tooth on a piece of popcorn and ended up with a root canal, they just gave me a local with the numbing gel beforehand for the needle itself.

I think the fact that not all dental offices even have nitrous available probably tells you how much they use it.

My dentist says she sees a lot of European patients coming in filled with terror based on their experiences back home. She seems to think that with the newer technology and the willingness to give you drugs, it's a lot easier over here!