A
Aurora
Junior member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2015
- Messages
- 6
Hi all. I'm not happy to be here, but doing my best to cope. I have to ask this wonderful community a few questions, hopefully to ease my fear.
I'm no stranger to dental procedures or medical procedures, but am very phobic. Currently I'm going my best to buck up and get ready but I know that as the day of my procedure approaches, I will become more and more afraid.
Situation:
I've been struggling since November with an infection in my tooth and surrounding gum. The tooth (#20) had a root canal about 7 years ago. When it first started hurting, I went to my dentist, he took an X-ray, and I got some antibiotics. Seemed to go fine. Then the pain came back a couple weeks later. One more round of antibiotics. The pain stayed away for like 2 months, but earlier this week came back with a vengeance. Now my tooth and surrounding tissue are throbbing constantly. My dentist referred me to an endodontist, who told me the tooth needed to be extracted and gave me a course of clindamycin. So I went back to my regular dentist, who scheduled me in for today. However, he flat refused to give me anything except 20 mg diazepam, which just didn't work last time I had it (needed a filling). I got slightly sleepy, but was still crying and losing my crap in the dentist chair. So this morning, I was feeling afraid after reading about sepsis from pulling infected teeth and also about how locals don't always work when infections are active. I called my dentist to ask questions about this, and he basically said he didn't want to deal with me and wanted to refer me to an oral surgeon. I found an oral surgeon who I liked (recommended by a friend) and went for a consultation today. He said that my infection was quite bad and that I had a lot of bone loss in the region. He said the infection had likely been brewing for two years (!!). He said I should have a bone graft. He also said that the tooth is not likely to come out nicely. The crown will probably break during the extraction, and the tooth itself might detach from the root. This means cutting and drilling into the gum to remove the root. Given all of this, I opted for conscious sedation (midazolam and fentanyl).
But here is the thing: I am so freaking nervous still. Stupidly enough, I'm afraid of the sedation. I had it once before when I had an upper GI endoscopy. It was unpleasant. Coming out of that state just felt like a struggle. I was in and out of being aware, and could not retain a memory for any measurable amount of time. I'm told that I asked the same question every 5 minutes for like an hour. I don't enjoy having gaps in my memory. To top things off, the sedation made me feel sick to my stomach, and I am emetaphobic.
Here is what I want to know.
So about the actual procedure:
Is it even okay to do a bone graft at the same time as pulling the tooth? Will that not seal the infection in so it can't drain?
What the heck does a bone graft entail? My oral surgeon made it sound like he would just pack some material into the socket that would eventually become my bone. Is it really that simple? If this is the case, will it reduce the risk of dry socket since there is something in the socket?
About the sedation:
So... I've always wondered if I was given too high a dosage of drugs when I was sedated for my endoscopy. This doctor legitimately thought I was a drug addict (I'm not entirely sure why. I'm really not) and I feel like she may have given me too much because she thought I would need a higher dose due to my supposed being a drug addict. When I talk to other people about their sedation experiences, they don't seem to have the ugly struggle of coming out of that state. When I had it, I only remember up to where the nurse pushed about half of the syringe into my IV. It wasn't even complete, and my memory is gone up to where I was struggling to become a human being again after the procedure. And boy was I high for the rest of the day. I dropped something on the floor later and tried to pick it up and missed like 3 times. It was just intense. And the nausea. Ugh, the nausea.
Sorry for rant. Question is: Did you experience this during sedation? Does it sound like I was given too much that time? Is there anything I should tell the oral surgeon before he gives me the drugs? Like, maybe I'm sensitive and don't need as much or something like that. Was this a normal sedation experience? I don't feel like sedation is supposed to be unpleasant, and I haven't hear of anyone getting so nauseas other than myself (although I admit I have stomach problems).
My procedure is on Tuesday. I just really want to talk to some people. My face hurts and I'm afraid.
I'm no stranger to dental procedures or medical procedures, but am very phobic. Currently I'm going my best to buck up and get ready but I know that as the day of my procedure approaches, I will become more and more afraid.
Situation:
I've been struggling since November with an infection in my tooth and surrounding gum. The tooth (#20) had a root canal about 7 years ago. When it first started hurting, I went to my dentist, he took an X-ray, and I got some antibiotics. Seemed to go fine. Then the pain came back a couple weeks later. One more round of antibiotics. The pain stayed away for like 2 months, but earlier this week came back with a vengeance. Now my tooth and surrounding tissue are throbbing constantly. My dentist referred me to an endodontist, who told me the tooth needed to be extracted and gave me a course of clindamycin. So I went back to my regular dentist, who scheduled me in for today. However, he flat refused to give me anything except 20 mg diazepam, which just didn't work last time I had it (needed a filling). I got slightly sleepy, but was still crying and losing my crap in the dentist chair. So this morning, I was feeling afraid after reading about sepsis from pulling infected teeth and also about how locals don't always work when infections are active. I called my dentist to ask questions about this, and he basically said he didn't want to deal with me and wanted to refer me to an oral surgeon. I found an oral surgeon who I liked (recommended by a friend) and went for a consultation today. He said that my infection was quite bad and that I had a lot of bone loss in the region. He said the infection had likely been brewing for two years (!!). He said I should have a bone graft. He also said that the tooth is not likely to come out nicely. The crown will probably break during the extraction, and the tooth itself might detach from the root. This means cutting and drilling into the gum to remove the root. Given all of this, I opted for conscious sedation (midazolam and fentanyl).
But here is the thing: I am so freaking nervous still. Stupidly enough, I'm afraid of the sedation. I had it once before when I had an upper GI endoscopy. It was unpleasant. Coming out of that state just felt like a struggle. I was in and out of being aware, and could not retain a memory for any measurable amount of time. I'm told that I asked the same question every 5 minutes for like an hour. I don't enjoy having gaps in my memory. To top things off, the sedation made me feel sick to my stomach, and I am emetaphobic.
Here is what I want to know.
So about the actual procedure:
Is it even okay to do a bone graft at the same time as pulling the tooth? Will that not seal the infection in so it can't drain?
What the heck does a bone graft entail? My oral surgeon made it sound like he would just pack some material into the socket that would eventually become my bone. Is it really that simple? If this is the case, will it reduce the risk of dry socket since there is something in the socket?
About the sedation:
So... I've always wondered if I was given too high a dosage of drugs when I was sedated for my endoscopy. This doctor legitimately thought I was a drug addict (I'm not entirely sure why. I'm really not) and I feel like she may have given me too much because she thought I would need a higher dose due to my supposed being a drug addict. When I talk to other people about their sedation experiences, they don't seem to have the ugly struggle of coming out of that state. When I had it, I only remember up to where the nurse pushed about half of the syringe into my IV. It wasn't even complete, and my memory is gone up to where I was struggling to become a human being again after the procedure. And boy was I high for the rest of the day. I dropped something on the floor later and tried to pick it up and missed like 3 times. It was just intense. And the nausea. Ugh, the nausea.
Sorry for rant. Question is: Did you experience this during sedation? Does it sound like I was given too much that time? Is there anything I should tell the oral surgeon before he gives me the drugs? Like, maybe I'm sensitive and don't need as much or something like that. Was this a normal sedation experience? I don't feel like sedation is supposed to be unpleasant, and I haven't hear of anyone getting so nauseas other than myself (although I admit I have stomach problems).
My procedure is on Tuesday. I just really want to talk to some people. My face hurts and I'm afraid.