sharing my success

[laurat1987]

Hi everyone. You may have seen my posts in the support forum when I was looking for reassurance about my tooth extraction. This forum has helped me so much and I just thought i'd share my experience and hopefully help others.

I have been afraid of the dentist all my life and haven't been since I was a child. I'm a 23 year old professional and there was no reason for me to go apart from fear. My Mum is also really scared of the dentist so she never made me go. Anyway I had 3 molars that were so badly decayed they were broken down to the gumline. Finally went to dentist last week after a year of my partner nagging me and was told the 3 teeth had to come out.

I was so nervous as I am terrified of needles (more so than the actual dentist) but got 2 taken out yesterday. Sedation wasn't going to help me as I would have been just as scared having the IV administered so decided just to have the injection and stay awake.

I asked for numbing gel but to be honest this didn't work too well for me. It worked in the sense that I didn't feel localised pain ie I knew there was a needle in their but wasn't sure where! It took quite a few injections before I was numb but they weren't too painful, except for the one in my cheek which seemed to be in really deep (although I was proabably just imagining this!) I got through the injections by using a technique i'd read about by someone else on this forum - I started counting down from 20 and just kept telling myself, by the time I get to 1, this will be over. And it was!

The actual procedure wasn't too bad. You feel lots of pressure - so much so that the whole time I was waiting for the pain to come. But it didn't. My teeth didn't want to seem to come out and it took about 15mins to get them both out. I had my ipod on the whole time because I didn't want to hear all the cracking etc. You do hear it a bit because it's inside your own head! My dentist was brilliant and told me just to put my hand up if I needed her to take a break but I didn't - just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible! I also kept my eyes shut the whole time which definitely helps.

I've got to admit, I found after the procedure to actually be more horrible. Because I had so much anaesthetic, I was numb for about 5 hours afterwards, and was dribling all over the place. I was bleeding until I went to sleep (got the procedure done at 5pm) and when the anesthetic did wore off, I was in quite a lot of pain. BUT, i've woken up today feeling great - only a little sore where the needles have gone in and quite swollen.

All in all, i'm not going to lie, it wasn't a pleasant experience, but it was still nowhere near as bad as I expected and I'm so glad I did it. The anticipation is the worst bit. I just have to have one more taken out in a couple of weeks, then a cleaning and hopefully that will be me. And I will be going every 6 months from now on!

 

[jenzie]

Congratulations, Laurat! I had an extraction this morning as well. I could've nearly written your post word for word. As I parked in front of the office I thought to myself, "In 30 minutes I'll be getting back in this car and it will be OVER."

I needed two extractions and got the last one done day. Such a relief. I really, really hate that I waited so long (it could've just been a simple filling instead of this, you know?), but I'm glad it's over. And I vow to never stop going regularly to the dentist from now on.

It's so good to hear other success stories. I think they helped me the most in finding courage to make (and keep!) those first appointments. And honestly, every appointment gets easier to go to.

I love the idea of counting down to 20 during injections!

 

[brit]

I love the idea of counting down to 20 during injections!

It is a good idea if you find the injections painful I agree....to do a large dose of LA comfortably it can easily take 2 minutes to squeeze the fluid in very slowly - yes that is a long time but if it is painfree who cares - I'm afraid having experienced the comfortable version, I am not willing to put up with anything else. Of course it does start to go numb during the lengthy period as well so not as bad as it sounds to those needlephobes who think they might prefer the quick version!

Glad to hear it all went well for you apart from some aspects of the LA delivery.

 

[laurat1987]

Well I had my second extraction done yesterday and a small filling and I have to say, it was a lot easier than last time.

The anaesthetic wasn't too bad, felt a little sore but was over in about a minute. All I felt during the filling was a lot of cold air in my mouth. The extraction was a little uncomfortable because of the pressure, but again, it seemed a lot quicker this time. My tooth came out in one piece and I think I was in the chair for a total of about 20 minutes.

I'm feeling fine today - took 2 iburpfen this morning and apart from my jaw being stiff and a bit swollen, no pain.

I am so glad this is done now. Apart from 2 little gaps at the side, I have a healthy mouth now. I would urge anyone worried about rotten teeth to go and get them out. Believe me, it is a whole lot less painful than the constant toothache! Thanks again for the support everyone. Couldn't have done it without thise site, but think I can say, i'm over my fear!

 

[ButterfliesInHerEyes]

I don't think anyone finds going to the dentist a "pleasant" experience - I could be wrong. The important thing is you got it done! Good job!