Scared to brush teeth

[Anxiety Riddled]

I’ve never had an issue with brushing my teeth up until about 2 years ago. I don’t understand why this problem even started but all of a sudden I’m so hyper focused on my teeth and it makes them feel weird to me to the point I’m afraid to brush them. Short back story, for the past few months I’ve been having issues with my wisdom teeth. My top left wisdom tooth decided to grow in extremely fast within like a 1 month period which caused a lot of pain and discomfort. Ever since my wisdom teeth started bothering me my anxiety about my mouth and brushing has gotten a lot worse. I will look at my teeth constantly and I’ll think I see a hole or a crack in them (the front bottom teeth especially) which will make me afraid to brush them or I’ll constantly think they are loose and I have this irrational fear that if I brush them they will fall out. I’m terrified of the dentist and I really want to at least start taking care of my teeth at home (even if it’s just a little bit at first) but I don’t know how to get myself over this ridiculous thought/fear. Anyone have any advice? I’d really appreciate it.

A side note: I have finally reached out to my primary doctor and gotten on anxiety medication to hopefully help me through this but obviously I have to wait the 2 to 4 weeks to see if it will even help.

 

[NervousUSA]

@Anxiety Riddled That sounds very stressful. In case it is any use of you, and I am not sure how much like your situation this is, the erruption of my wisdom teeth was very painful, for about a year. It caused me to have a lot of pain in my front teeth, during that time. The nerves for your front teeth run through the wisdom teeth area, I think. My bottom front teeth were the ones that hurt the most. I constantly thought of my teeth, and was always gritting them, and worrying about them. I wonder if it would help you to try and improve the situation with your wisdom teeth, if they are bothering you? Mine improved a lot because I started cleaning them with a water pik and a tuft brush and using mouthwash, I also used things like tylenol and ibuprofen during the worst of their erruption, doing these things made them more comfortable. Don't know if this is any use to you, and how much wisdom teeth erruption discomfort is part of your issue, but I wanted to share just in case it helps.

 

[Anxiety Riddled]

@NervousUSA thank you for your reply. I’m curious if you are right about the nerves being affected by the wisdom teeth because this odd “loose” feeling in my bottom front teeth was never really a predominant thing until now. As I’m writing this I’m actually having quite a lot of pressure from my top left wisdom tooth. It may sound odd but the pressure from my wisdom teeth is part of the reason I won’t brush or even chew. I haven’t eaten solid food in over 2 months. I’m just so uncomfortable. I wish I wasn’t so scared to just get my wisdom teeth removed because I know in the long run I would be so much better off.

 

[Enarete]

Hi Anxiety Riddled,

first of all I am glad you've reached to your primary doctor and got some medication. One thing to mention would be that medication works the best in combination with therapy. Looking at the things that have been bothering you lately, it all comes down to having unwanted thoughts and focusing too much on certain things in your mouth which is all something for CBT. I do not think your fears are ridiculous and I don't think it's a matter of will or any right advice to get past it.
We have a free online course about health anxiety here on the page. It may help you to understand which things that you may be doing actually make you likely to have more thoughts and more fears. It can be useful to get familiar with the dynamics if you'd try to tackle this on your own. You can find the course here:

https://www.dentalfearcentral.org/forum/threads/overcoming-health-anxiety-free-course.29792/

All the best wishes

 

[Anxiety Riddled]

@Enarete thank you for the information. I have vaguely looked into therapy and preferably would like to find an online therapist. I’ve looked into the well known “betterhelp” but it’s quite expensive. I do believe I would benefit from that form of treatment so I’m hoping to maybe find something eventually.

 

[NervousUSA]

@Anxiety Riddled During my wisdom teeth eruption I became convinced my front teeth were shifting or moving, because of the strange feelings of pressure and pain in them, and how they seemed really different, but it wasn't the case, it was an illusion and the sensations stopped after the painful erruption phase ended (about a year). I felt like I had to grit my teeth the whole time so they couldn't move. It was weird. I saw the other comment about online therapy, just wanted to mention I liked 7cups online therapy which I used for help with my medical/dental trauma. It is by email and costs a bit less than $50 per week.

 

[Anxiety Riddled]

@NervousUSA that sounds similar to my issue. My teeth don’t quite feel like they are moving but I do have an odd pressure sensation (mostly in my bottom teeth). Did you end up having your wisdom teeth removed? And also I just looked into the 7cups online therapy you mentioned and it looks interesting. Was the therapy service they provided helpful for you?

 

[Enarete]

@Enarete thank you for the information. I have vaguely looked into therapy and preferably would like to find an online therapist. I’ve looked into the well known “betterhelp” but it’s quite expensive. I do believe I would benefit from that form of treatment so I’m hoping to maybe find something eventually.

Betterhelp got somewhat worse in the last years, I would nowadays rather recommend Talkspace, which is the second most prominent plattform for online therapy in the US. They are better and have different plans depending on what you need / how often you need contact to a therapist.

 

[Anxiety Riddled]

@Enarete thank you for the advice. It doesn’t surprise me that Betterhelp has gone down hill being that they over commercialized it now. I feel like once they push a product or platform extra hard like that it usually goes badly.

 

[NervousUSA]

@Anxiety Riddled I ended up having the teeth removed but not because of the pain and sensations during erruption, and not for many years. The teeth errupted over one year, when I was about 23, and caused the issues I described, and after that year, they had finished their erruption and the issues stopped. I did not have issues with them again until I was about 40, when I started to have issues with my gums near them, and got them removed. I found 7cups useful, I was using it to deal with medical and dental trauma and phobia, and was able to improve my abililty to deal with that type of thing a lot with help from the therapy.

 

[Anxiety Riddled]

@NervousUSA oh ok. That’s great that you didn’t have issues other than the eruption for many years. Well I would assume that was a positive for you (I could be wrong ). I am in my 30’s so I’m very nervous about getting them removed at an older age (I read too much online about age being a big factor when it comes to complications ). I have a severe dental phobia and haven’t been to the dentist since I was a teen. I’m terrified. Not only do I not know how my wisdom teeth are positioned and growing in but I’m scared for the condition of my mouth as a whole. I have a feeling therapy is going to be the only thing to truly help me with my dental phobia so I’m really hoping I can find something at some point.

 

[NervousUSA]

@Anxiety Riddled I think removal at an older age is not so bad. I was around 40 and it was no big deal for me, and there are many stories on this website of older people removing wisdom teeth and not having any big issues. I'm sorry you are having to deal with dental phobia. I stopped going to the dentist as a teen from my dental phobia/trauma and didn't start again for 19 years, so I can relate. I strongly recommend therapy for this type of issue, it has enormously improved my ability to deal with medical/dental situations. Just two months of therapy was enough for me to make enough progress to get what I needed done with doctors and dentists.

 

[Anxiety Riddled]

@NervousUSA your story definitely gives me hope! Dental phobia is no joke and it’s so debilitating. I’m currently looking into a few online therapy programs. Some even mention taking insurance which if it took my insurance that would be great!