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When the Hygenist Says, I Think We Can Remove "Anxiety" From Your File....

E

Emiltig

Junior member
Joined
Apr 5, 2017
Messages
15
Location
Upstate New York
When the Hygenist Says, I Think We Can Remove "Anxiety" From Your File....

I had a dental cleaning yesterday....and I survived. It was my first cleaning since I was about 18 years old and I'm almost 34 years old. After years of fear and anxiety, building up in my head, I decided I had to do something. I was letting all these fears stop me from living my life on my terms. I let them keep me from looking forward to the future. If anyone has read my journals, I have deep gum recession, mostly isolated to my bottom two middle teeth. First noticed in my childhood years, maybe when I was around 11-12. I went to the dentist in my younger years but not steadily. I even had braces for five years.....still all the while my gum recession was getting worse. No one said, hey, this could become a problem later in life, let's get this addressed now. Nope. What proceeded from there was self esteem issues due to my shattered self confidence about the state of my oral health. Years of it. I stopped going to the dentist, battled through years of self-hatred at the fact that I just kept letting this issue go. Too much fear about the procedures and process that I would have to go through to fix or treat what was happening. Finally I hit a wall. I called up a dentist who had terrific reviews online and made my appointment, for a new patient exam. That was at the beginning of this month. After the exam I scheduled my first cleaning, basically in my adult life, and I just went yesterday. I have answers now, and more peace of mind than I have in a decade. The cleaning hurt, but it was worth it. I have some appointments scheduled for fillings, I'm going to need some of those, including a crown in the future. But, I'm happier than I have been in too many years to count. Also, I found out that the gum recession is due to occlusion trauma. A brand new term for me. Basically, my mouth is all kinds of messed up, but a good orthodontist should have seen this when I had braces as a teen. I have a small archway, and misaligned bite that have caused my own teeth to traumitize my other teeth. When I bite down, chew etc. therefore my two bottom teeth have caught the brunt of the trauma which is why the gums there have pulled away and exposed the roots. I'm still scared, about going thru this journey, but I'm a little bit excited too, feeling like I can get through this. To anyone else who is terribly fearful of making that first appointment, do it anyway. The cost of not going is too high of price to pay. Stay tuned, I'm going to update along the way.
 
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