Scared witless about tomorrow!

[rocklover]

My fiance decided not to go to work as I am in such a state, I feel so guilty and stupid. I still feel really ill, upset tummy and extreme nausea, I've just taken my 5mg diazepam and I'm hoping to God it works, or I know I won't be able to do this.

I am so ashamed of being so scared of something so minor in the scheme of life's difficulties, I don't know how I will be able to cope.

 

[rocklover]

Update on "Scared Witless" about root canal.

Just got back from the first treatment and after nearly having a nervous breakdown this morning, I'm glad to say I made it with no major incidents.

My lovely fiance took this morning off work as he was so worried about me and he came to the dentist for moral support. I took my diazepam and to be honest it didn't really have a huge effect on me, but I didn't have a full blown panic attack, my main problem was just feeling very, very sick throughout the treatment.

The actual work only took around 15 mins in the end (after a good 10 mins of injecting and waiting for the anaesthetic to take). First off the anaesthetic worked fantastically, as well as the infection being dealt with, the dentist seemed to inject in a slightly different spot and I was numb within 2 mins. She then drilled out the old filling and then all the decay, she then flushed through the tooth with liquid about 3 times. She didn't, however, use a rubber dam, should I be worried about that?

All she did after that was put in a temporary dressing which seems to be a temporary filling with anti bacterial stuff in it, apparently she wants to get rid of all the bacteria and calm the inflamed nerve down before commencing with the next step. Is this normal procedure for a root canal?

The good news is that she did an x-ray on my right side and there are no problems at present. I have my next appt in 3 weeks time (that's the first 30 min appt she had), is it ok to leave a temporary filling that long? She told me not to floss that tooth as the filling could "pop out", but she said i was safe to eat on it, is that right? I feel very nervous about chewing on it as it is quite flakey/crunchy, although the dentist did say this was normal.

Anyway, enough of my rambling, thank God I did it!

 

[laughingloon]

Hope it went well. Sounds like you have a great fiance.

 

[RP]

I'm so glad for you rock!

rp

by the way I merged a couple of your posts, you've got this in like three places......hard to keep track of things that way and follow a conversation or support messages.

 

[vicki]

Re: Update on "Scared Witless" about root canal.

That's fantastic news!!! . Hopefully now, some of your worries might start to lessen a bit. You didn't mention how your dentist reacted to being told that you'd taken the diazepam, but hopefully it was positive .

I took my diazepam and to be honest it didn't really have a huge effect on me, but I didn't have a full blown panic attack, my main problem was just feeling very, very sick throughout the treatment.

The effects of diazepam depend very much on the size of the dose that you take and also you as an individual - people react slightly differently to it. However, if you were prescribed a fairly smallish dose just to take the edge off things, rather than knock you out, so to speak, then it did the job didn't it? You didn't have a full blown panic attack.

The feeling sick could have been due to nerves, or it could be due to taking the diazepam on an empty stomach? Some people recommend taking it on an empty stomach to maximise the effects, but sometimes it's better to eat something just before you take it and that can reduce the chances of you feeling sick.

She then drilled out the old filling and then all the decay, she then flushed through the tooth with liquid about 3 times. She didn't, however, use a rubber dam, should I be worried about that?

The use of a rubber dam is supposedly considered compulsory for effective root canal treatment in order to minimise risk of infection. However, it sounds as though you've had your tooth 'dressed', which is kind of the preliminary stages of a root canal treatment, but not the actual root canal itself. Dressing a tooth is a bit like a deep filling, except that before they put the filling material in, they put a layer of anti-inflammatory or antibiotic stuff in to help calm the nerve down before the root canal is done. All this is then covered with a temporary filling until your next appointment.

When your root canal is done at the next appointment, that's when the rubber dam will probably be used (if it isn't, ask your dentist why not ). At this appointment, the roots of your tooth will be cleaned out and then rinsed to get rid of any remaining bacteria, before being filled and then a filling placed on top of all that, in the main part of your tooth - just as with a normal filling. The time between your appointments should give your tooth time to settle down and so you shouldn't feel any discomfort during your root canal .

You've got a temporary filling in the tooth, so I would be a little careful with it until you've had the root canal done. You should be OK with soft food on that tooth, just don't go eating any toffee or anything too hard/crunchy. Try not to worry so much about eating now, just be sensible about what you eat, keep your teeth clean and remember how well you did today !!!

 

[rocklover]

Sorry about the multiple posts , thanks for tidying them up RP. I didn't actually get a chance to tell the dentist about the Diazepam as it all went so fast, but my fiance helped me tell her how scared I was and she was really nice about it.

I am still eating on the right side of my mouth as the tooth is quite tender (I have taken a pain killer as the dentist recommended) and it also feels quite odd when I bite down on it, like there's nothing inside the tooth, crappy description but I can't quite explain it. Is this normal?


Think I'm going to leave it to settle for a few days before I eat on the tooth.

 

[brit]

it also feels quite odd when I bite down on it, like there's nothing inside the tooth, crappy description but I can't quite explain it. Is this normal?


Think I'm going to leave it to settle for a few days before I eat on the tooth.

Congrats - yes it feeling hollow with the dressing in is normal.

 

[rocklover]

The tooth feels much better today and I feel a bit more confident about trying to eat on it, although I do have a cavity on that side in my upper wisdom tooth still waiting to be filled so I do still feel a bit nervous about eating on my left side.

Anyway, I wanted to come on here today to thank all of you that offered advice and reassurance to me when I so desperately needed it, without out this site (and the lovely people on it), I would not have been able to deal with my fears.

I won't lie and say I'm cured of my phobia (and I'm sure I'll need a little hand holding before my next appt in three weeks), but I'm hoping that I won't get into the same state I did this time for my next treatment.

Thanks again to everyone.