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Terrified of deep cleaning

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Laine1109

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Aug 5, 2021
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After avoiding the dentist for nearly 12 years I finally worked up the nerve to go for a consult in August. I need a root planing and scaling and 4 small cavities filled. Now the time has finally come to get the root planing and scaling done next week and I'm literally terrified. I can't stop thinking about it, I get sick in my stomach, have the cold sweats and start shaking. My doctor prescribed me .5mg of Ativan to take before my appointment because my insurance won't cover nitrous and its $200 an hour. I am scheduled for 2 two hour appointments to get each side of my mouth done two weeks apart. Hoping someone can share their success story about this procedure to calm my fears a little.
 
Hi @Laine1109, I can't help with a personal experience, but have you seen this thread in the FAQs where people have described their experiences/success stories:


Wishing you all the best for your appointments ?
 
@letsconnect thank you so much! Reading others experiences helps calm me down a bit. Fingers crossed its not as bad as I'm picturing it in my head.
 
For what it's worth, I had terrible phobia and hadn't been to dentist in 10 years. They spread the cleaning out over 4 visits. Anything over an hour was just too much to handle. My hygienist was also wonderful, and didn't push when I told her one spot was ouchy. Was worth it in the end as am finally able to floss comfortably for the first time ever! One thing to consider though is when they do the flouride treatment after there may be an option of rinse or paint on. I am sensitive to regular toothpastes and they didn't take that into account, it wasn't good. I hope it goes well for you!
 
@Cosmo thank you for your reply! I was supposed to have 4 appointments for the deep cleaning but because my dentist is over an hour away they told me they would do it in 2. Just being there for the consultation and having my mouth open for an hour gave me horrible jaw pain but I'm hoping I can push through it. Honestly I think I'm worried about not being able to swallow that entire time and that my teeth will feel loose after the cleaning is done, especially the ones with the gum recession.
 
After avoiding the dentist for nearly 12 years I finally worked up the nerve to go for a consult in August. I need a root planing and scaling and 4 small cavities filled. Now the time has finally come to get the root planing and scaling done next week and I'm literally terrified. I can't stop thinking about it, I get sick in my stomach, have the cold sweats and start shaking. My doctor prescribed me .5mg of Ativan to take before my appointment because my insurance won't cover nitrous and its $200 an hour. I am scheduled for 2 two hour appointments to get each side of my mouth done two weeks apart. Hoping someone can share their success story about this procedure to calm my fears a little.
I had a deep cleaning spread over 2 appointments and it was actually more pleasant than a normal cleaning, since they numbed me first so that I didn't feel a thing. I find regular cleanings to be quite painful but the deep cleaning was like nothing at all. it was a bit sore later that night. but nothing that even required over the counter pain meds, it just was not a good night to eat spicy hot foods is all.
 
@ScaredyCat22 thank you so much for your reply, it calms me a bit hearing others success stories. I'm just worried that my teeth will feel loose after, especially since I have some receding gums on my lower teeth.
 
@ScaredyCat22 thank you so much for your reply, it calms me a bit hearing others success stories. I'm just worried that my teeth will feel loose after, especially since I have some receding gums on my lower teeth.
ok to be totally honest you may experience a sensation of them being loose if you get numbed and then as the numbing wears off. but if you touch them you will see they actually are not loose at all, it's just a weird feeling after so much tartar has been removed below the gum line but you will not feel like that for long. I felt like my front teeth were loose but they weren't. and the feeling went away. I have receding gums too, pretty severe in a couple of spots but no teeth got loose.
 
@ScaredyCat22 thank you for telling me because I would have totally panicked if I thought my teeth felt loose. My gums go through periods of inflammation and sensitivity and of course they are sore right now, 2 days before my appointment so I'm really not looking forward to it.
 
you will be really glad that you got it over with and after you do the first half you won't be worried about your second appointment at all.
 
I made it through the appointment and honestly it was no big deal. I think the injections to get numb were the worst part. My root is exposed on the one tooth that had the most gum recession but the dentist told me it should heal itself in the next week or so.
 
Congratulations! I know how big of a step this is. When you start getting your teeth fixed it really does change your life :)
 
Hi,

I have a deep cleaning appointment this afternoon at 4pm and it is the numbing part that I am scared off I am not keen on needles, I have loads of needles in the arm from IV to blood tests but not had one in the mouth yet so I am scared it will hurt a lot. some people say it hurts some people say it doesn't. What do you think?

I am also hoping that I get to my appointment on time because I finish work at 3:30pm and my appointment is at 4pm and it will take me about 20 minutes to drive their and then I have to find a parking space. the dentist said if I am only a few minutes late I should be okay but if it is longer than that they will have too re-arrange the appointment because they have someone in straight after me.

I really don't want to have to rearrange for a second time, I initially had a appointment on the 14th June when I was on annual leave and this appointment was at 10am in the morning but they had put in a room at the top of steep steps so I couldn't climb them and they had lost my notes saying that I needed a downstairs room for my appointment which is why it got rearranged for today.


Personally I think they should honour the appointment since it was their fault it had to be rearranged.


Fingers crossed I get their on time today.


Thank You

Lindsey
 
I went for my appointment today and it was just a scale and polish no needle apparently the dentist had said I need a deep cleaning but the hygienist I saw. Today said I didn’t need one so the dentist scared me for no reason
 
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