M
MBlair
Junior member
- Joined
- May 22, 2024
- Messages
- 1
- Location
- Nashville, TN
Hello All.
I am a 39/F that has severe panic and anxiety issues across the board with a lifelong phobia of anything dental related.
As a small child, loose baby teeth would send me into an absolute panic where I would be up for days on end scared it would come out. At one point I had several baby teeth literally hanging in my mouth where I would refuse to pull them or have them be pulled. I would scream, cry and pass out frequently with these dental episodes. Seeing dentists was even worse and outside of having a couple sets of braces that didn’t bother me - anything else has been my nightmare.
Over the years, Ive dealt with countless flair up infections/absesses from wisdom teeth and other molars. Antibiotics were my best friend until they didn’t work quite as quickly anymore.
Last year, after years of avoiding the dentist I have 4 separate procedures. The first was at an Endodontist where they did 8 root canals (a couple of which were retreats). An outside company was brought in to put me under general anesthesia and all went great. No pain after - which I had grown to expect from previous Endo experiences. The other 3 procedures were done in my dentists office - fillings, deep scaling, crowns etc. All I was under GA and there was only a little swelling and bruising after.
Fast forward to now and the time has come again for the talk of my wisdom teeth removal. (I have avoided this since I was 18) as the tooth removal and recovery is my absolute worst fear next to death itself. There are also 2 additional molars they are saying need to go. 1,32,31,16,16,17. So 6 in total. All wisdom teeth are impacted.
I have been for 2 consults over the years and never went through with the surgery. After a two week nightmare of a severe abscess where my cheek swelling was insane and pain was unbearable I scheduled a consult for last week.
I tried to go in with an open mind and rationalize that this is something that HAS to be done - and once it is it will be over forever. It just didn’t work.
The doctor was perfectly nice and of course said they have patients with dental phobias all the time - but I know she didn’t get the extent of just how bad mine is.
They are planning to do IV sedation which Im fine with - as long as Im fully asleep. She made remarks to me waking up but not being scared because of the meds. I have been through that before and it was traumatizing for me. So this is not what I wanted/needed to hear. Further, when I asked about taking one of my anxiety pills the morning of - she said no. This is interested to me because in previous procedures where I have been put under I have always been able to take something.
I am not only seriously concerned about being able to get myself in there to actually do this - but the time Im there AND the aftercare.
I expressed that in the past, they have taken me back and immediately sedated me. They have expressed this will not be possible because there are some things they will go over with me and then check my vitals and then the doctor will come in to put in my IV etc. It’s like they just absolutely dont understand at all.
Then, the aftercare.
Remember what I said I was like about baby teeth? Well, everything Ive read sounds like an absolute horror story to me. From dealing with bloody gauze to gummy bloody holes to having to rinse to having to stay propped up to sleep to the ice packs and lets not forget worrying about dry socket all while you can hardly eat because this is going to be on both sides of my mouth.
I called yesterday and talked to an assistant in an effort to ease my mind more and it didn’t help at all.
I feel ashamed, embarrassed, defeated and exhausted. I want to be like everyone else, but Im just not.
My husband and family are my support system and while they are amazing they are also extremely worried because I have waited so long and been so sick over the years with this. They are pushing hard for me to go through with this. My husband says he can’t imagine that aftercare pain would be anywhere near as bad as Ive been experiencing with these horrible abscessed teeth.
Can anyone help me?
I am a 39/F that has severe panic and anxiety issues across the board with a lifelong phobia of anything dental related.
As a small child, loose baby teeth would send me into an absolute panic where I would be up for days on end scared it would come out. At one point I had several baby teeth literally hanging in my mouth where I would refuse to pull them or have them be pulled. I would scream, cry and pass out frequently with these dental episodes. Seeing dentists was even worse and outside of having a couple sets of braces that didn’t bother me - anything else has been my nightmare.
Over the years, Ive dealt with countless flair up infections/absesses from wisdom teeth and other molars. Antibiotics were my best friend until they didn’t work quite as quickly anymore.
Last year, after years of avoiding the dentist I have 4 separate procedures. The first was at an Endodontist where they did 8 root canals (a couple of which were retreats). An outside company was brought in to put me under general anesthesia and all went great. No pain after - which I had grown to expect from previous Endo experiences. The other 3 procedures were done in my dentists office - fillings, deep scaling, crowns etc. All I was under GA and there was only a little swelling and bruising after.
Fast forward to now and the time has come again for the talk of my wisdom teeth removal. (I have avoided this since I was 18) as the tooth removal and recovery is my absolute worst fear next to death itself. There are also 2 additional molars they are saying need to go. 1,32,31,16,16,17. So 6 in total. All wisdom teeth are impacted.
I have been for 2 consults over the years and never went through with the surgery. After a two week nightmare of a severe abscess where my cheek swelling was insane and pain was unbearable I scheduled a consult for last week.
I tried to go in with an open mind and rationalize that this is something that HAS to be done - and once it is it will be over forever. It just didn’t work.
The doctor was perfectly nice and of course said they have patients with dental phobias all the time - but I know she didn’t get the extent of just how bad mine is.
They are planning to do IV sedation which Im fine with - as long as Im fully asleep. She made remarks to me waking up but not being scared because of the meds. I have been through that before and it was traumatizing for me. So this is not what I wanted/needed to hear. Further, when I asked about taking one of my anxiety pills the morning of - she said no. This is interested to me because in previous procedures where I have been put under I have always been able to take something.
I am not only seriously concerned about being able to get myself in there to actually do this - but the time Im there AND the aftercare.
I expressed that in the past, they have taken me back and immediately sedated me. They have expressed this will not be possible because there are some things they will go over with me and then check my vitals and then the doctor will come in to put in my IV etc. It’s like they just absolutely dont understand at all.
Then, the aftercare.
Remember what I said I was like about baby teeth? Well, everything Ive read sounds like an absolute horror story to me. From dealing with bloody gauze to gummy bloody holes to having to rinse to having to stay propped up to sleep to the ice packs and lets not forget worrying about dry socket all while you can hardly eat because this is going to be on both sides of my mouth.
I called yesterday and talked to an assistant in an effort to ease my mind more and it didn’t help at all.
I feel ashamed, embarrassed, defeated and exhausted. I want to be like everyone else, but Im just not.
My husband and family are my support system and while they are amazing they are also extremely worried because I have waited so long and been so sick over the years with this. They are pushing hard for me to go through with this. My husband says he can’t imagine that aftercare pain would be anywhere near as bad as Ive been experiencing with these horrible abscessed teeth.
Can anyone help me?
