N
nostalgia
Junior member
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2009
- Messages
- 10
Hi all. It's been over two years since I've seen a dentist. I've had some bad experiences to the point of being brought to tears in the chair, plus trouble getting numb, which has kept me thoroughly terrified. I went back today, and have a few questions and concerns. I tried asking at the dentist's, but would like some other opinions.
A few weeks ago I decided to suck it up and get a consultation with a new dentist who came highly recommended. I explained my fear, explaining that it bordered on blind panic. He did a full exam and concluded I needed 2 new fillings, one replaced, and a frenectomy on my lower lip. He said the muscle could pull the gum away from the teeth and told horror stories of having to graft skin from my palate if I don't do it. He mentioned nothing of the anxiety issues, but the assistant recommended nitrous. "You won't care what we do to you."
We set up the appointment for today. Started the nitrous, got my oral anesthetic injections (which, amusingly, I have no problem with at all). The nitrous was doing nothing, which seemed to surprise everyone in the room. The dentist said my lung capacity was too much for the machine since I'm an athlete, and I should take shallow breaths. I heard another woman behind me (anesthesiologist?) just say, "Keep breathing" over and over again.
After a while I got briefly dizzy and spinny like I was drunk, but I was completely lucid the entire time and it really didn't do anything for my anxiety. I certainly cared about what was going on. Is this how nitrous is supposed to work?
We continued anyway. Did one filling on top. Then the dentist injected anesthesia under my tongue. I thought it was for the bottom fillings. But before I knew it, he had lasered away the frenum under my tongue. When he got his hands out of my mouth, I asked, "I thought we were doing the frenectomy on my lower lip?"
A look passed between him and his assistant, and after a few moments he admonished her for not telling me about it: "You should have known when I injected him under the tongue."
Then he went on to inject my lower lip and do the frenectomy there.
The dentist disappeared immediately after finishing my fillings, but I asked the assistant why they had done the frenectomy on my tongue. She explained that they do it when a patient gets "tongue-tied", has trouble swallowing pills, or trouble putting the tongue on the roof of the mouth. I have none of these issues, nor did the dentist ever ask me about any of them. So why would he do it?
She then said that the dentist is in the habit of fixing things when he sees they're wrong, even if we weren't scheduled to do it. So the dentist looked in my mouth and said, "I need to cut that frenum"? It doesn't sound right, and I feel like I'm sitting here nursing an aching tongue unnecessarily because the dentist mixed up which procedure he was supposed to do.
Overall, it wasn't a terrible experience, but not what I'd call good. There was a small amount of pain while drilling a bottom tooth, but it was very brief. I was only in the chair for about an hour. The whole experience really just didn't inspire much confidence, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. Really I'm stressed from the whole thing and a little depressed. Dentistry shouldn't be this hard.
Thanks,
-Joe
A few weeks ago I decided to suck it up and get a consultation with a new dentist who came highly recommended. I explained my fear, explaining that it bordered on blind panic. He did a full exam and concluded I needed 2 new fillings, one replaced, and a frenectomy on my lower lip. He said the muscle could pull the gum away from the teeth and told horror stories of having to graft skin from my palate if I don't do it. He mentioned nothing of the anxiety issues, but the assistant recommended nitrous. "You won't care what we do to you."
We set up the appointment for today. Started the nitrous, got my oral anesthetic injections (which, amusingly, I have no problem with at all). The nitrous was doing nothing, which seemed to surprise everyone in the room. The dentist said my lung capacity was too much for the machine since I'm an athlete, and I should take shallow breaths. I heard another woman behind me (anesthesiologist?) just say, "Keep breathing" over and over again.
After a while I got briefly dizzy and spinny like I was drunk, but I was completely lucid the entire time and it really didn't do anything for my anxiety. I certainly cared about what was going on. Is this how nitrous is supposed to work?
We continued anyway. Did one filling on top. Then the dentist injected anesthesia under my tongue. I thought it was for the bottom fillings. But before I knew it, he had lasered away the frenum under my tongue. When he got his hands out of my mouth, I asked, "I thought we were doing the frenectomy on my lower lip?"
A look passed between him and his assistant, and after a few moments he admonished her for not telling me about it: "You should have known when I injected him under the tongue."
Then he went on to inject my lower lip and do the frenectomy there.
The dentist disappeared immediately after finishing my fillings, but I asked the assistant why they had done the frenectomy on my tongue. She explained that they do it when a patient gets "tongue-tied", has trouble swallowing pills, or trouble putting the tongue on the roof of the mouth. I have none of these issues, nor did the dentist ever ask me about any of them. So why would he do it?
She then said that the dentist is in the habit of fixing things when he sees they're wrong, even if we weren't scheduled to do it. So the dentist looked in my mouth and said, "I need to cut that frenum"? It doesn't sound right, and I feel like I'm sitting here nursing an aching tongue unnecessarily because the dentist mixed up which procedure he was supposed to do.
Overall, it wasn't a terrible experience, but not what I'd call good. There was a small amount of pain while drilling a bottom tooth, but it was very brief. I was only in the chair for about an hour. The whole experience really just didn't inspire much confidence, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. Really I'm stressed from the whole thing and a little depressed. Dentistry shouldn't be this hard.
Thanks,
-Joe
