Yikes panicking over friday appointment Helpppp

[tigerstripedred]

Friday 13th...really? It's just my normal cleaning. However I am terrified the crown I had replaced will come off shortly after like it did last time due to the short amount of tooth left. IF that happens they want me to go have crown lengthening and there is no way I am doing that so the tooth would go....I am not ready for this kind of possibility. I worry my gum measurements are going to have deep pockets and other dental work will be leaking or come off. The way my awful week has gone heck even my virgin teeth might decide to jump out of my face during the cleaning.
I worry about a filled tooth that feels a bit weird since I had night guard impressions done a month ago. It was a new filling 1.5 years old but I swear it is lose now or something. I don't want to redo xrays though. I had them done last month.

About half my days I am ready to say screw it pull everything even my perfectly healthy non worked on teeth..they have gum recession anyway from aggressive flossing and brushing. I mean it's where I'll end up anyway. Why keep delaying the inevitable. If I could wrap my head about the idea of dentures i probably would do that (even pull the stupid implant I got last year) but i can't wrap my head around that either.

I've even worried that my cleaning is going to hurt this time when it hasn't since my current Hygienist took over. And what if my gums bleed. I floss all the time. They still bleed sometimes..I see the memes about patients lying about flossing. I find those very upsetting because I do floss at least once a day...often times 2 or 3 times a day :/

I really just want to quit now. Yesterday was the 5 year anniversary of my tooth pull that forced me back to the dentist. I still feel just as hopeless and any time something has to be replaced or especially if they happen to find a cavity on a tooth with no work...I feel like an utter failure.

 

[oneby]

Hope your appointment went well, much better than you thought it might.

Sounds like you struggle with obsessive overthinking, and also linking lots of issues together into a big ball of worry. All too familiar to me. Interesting some of the ways you described your feelings. Like "hopeless" and "stupid" and "an utter failure". Sometimes there is more to dental phobias than just the issue of pain. There's sometimes a sense of personal failure or guilt or shame. Made all the worse if a dentist ever scolds us.

Anyhow - post an update if you can. Surely all of that bad things you mentioned didn't turn out that way.

And one last thing - you mentioned "aggressive brushing". Don't brush too hard. And always use a soft bristle brush. Otherwise you can cause gum damage. Keep it gentle. Love your teeth, don't fight them.

 

[krlovesherkids777]

Tiger...

How did it go.... please tell us. I hope well. You are so awesome and such an encouragement.

 

[FearfulInMA]

Hey, Tiger! I didn't see this until now because I was traveling. Hoping your appt went well!!

 

[Enarete]

How did your appointment go? Are you ok?

 

[tigerstripedred]

Hello All,
Sorry I took a few days away from everything dental for a bit... And I was still trying to set up my new phone which is a lot harder to type lengthy posts on.

Oneby..yes agreed...I'm not overly worried about pain when it comes to dental besides being surprised if the numbing wears off early. I don't even mind the shots and my pain tolerance is typically on the high side if I am prepared. Definitely better off since my dentist realizes just how quickly that stuff wears off on me.
It is very much the ultimate fear of more work meaning one step closer to losing teeth because you know...they have to take a little more of the natural tooth away every time something needs replacing just to ensure no decay is left lurking...And definitely the feelings of guilt and failure etc. That actually started long before actual fear of the dentist ever did. My childhood dentist had a picture board for the No Cavity club all my classmates went to the same dentist so we looked for each other...as fun as the picture board was the entirety of my childhood (no cavities till i was 16 or 17) it probably created the idea of shame and failure in someone who already accepted nothing but A's in school and in a highly competitive school even in elementary. I cried the first time I had a cavity at 16 (maybe I should say supposedly had a cavity) not really out of fear but out of disgust and probably shame and that particular hygienist at the time didn't help much...Don't remember her name but 20 years later I still remember her face and her comments.
As for brushing...I upgraded to one of the fancy electric toothbrushes with a head like they use in the dental office after I got my final restoration on my implant last October/November..I use that mostly.
But now I tend to floss too often (yes really told to scale it back) and brush too often at least on days when I am home to do so.

I didn't really worry about my teeth at all until one that was missing a filling for 7 years abscessed an had to be pulled...before that I avoided the dentist after a bad experiences dental and otherwise...except for once overseas but other than knowing I was missing a filling I never thought i would lose one. My front teeth looked ok, nothing really hurt so my avoidance continued (plus I was afraid they would think I was gross with my giant metal fillings and missing filling...I still never really thought I would lose an adult tooth even though it was a lingering fear...I don't think I truly thought that would happen to me. That set off the obsession for sure...

Ok enough of that.


Ok appointment time

Cleaning was fine. My hygienist is amazing and has been the only one to ever clean them (even before cavities) to not cause my teeth to ache or sting for a few days after a cleaning minimum...I did a good enough job she didn't have too much scraping to do.
I actually had a lot of ones and twos for pocket measurements even on my premolars which normally are 3s. Only one 4 which is an improvement from last time...even my implant was a 3 which I thought it would stay a 4 and couldn't' really improve (I love/hate the measurements) I stress about them being 4s and I seriously want all 3s or better and my perfectionist nature will stress over them not being as good next time.

Double checked visually all my places I was feeling like there might be a leak...bite wings were done last month and we didn't reshoot I guess if it gets more noticeable I will take my spazz self back or reshoot the concerning area in April even though I usually refuse to have them at every appointment (not a fan and my panic is less on non xray cleanings lol) Still some bleedy spots ...even though my gums improved. I swear I have one or two places that bleed once a week when I floss no matter what I do. One is a tight spot I sometimes pop floss into on accident but the other is not and it annoys me to no end.

Got a different type of night guard to try fitted. I still haven't been able to sleep in it, but at least I can try since I grind a lot at times and Doc C thinks that is why I start feeling like some of my crowns must be failing. Also it could be my bite as I am edge to edge. I just hope if I do wear this thing it doesn't start to create an open bite like I had as a kid. I never had braces or anything...it fixed itself and certainly do not want to revisit that!

Oh and the other thing I worry about the implant still looks good. No build up needing to be scraped off etc. hopefully the random aches I still get are from clenching/grinding or just simply kind of normal for having metal in bone...ie when the weather fronts change and just the fact that it's only been there a little less than a year and a half. Since it's so random and fleeting they don't see a reason to stress over it. Ie a twinge for a second or two one day and then gone for a week sometimes longer.

Still don't know what the issue is with the vibrational feeling when I talk sometimes...mostly happens at work around a ton of electronics and wifi. Never at home. It's annoying because it causes me to worry about my teeth when it happens...because of course I think about it. Otherwise I had mostly gotten to the point where I wasn't a mess until maybe the month before a cleaning. It'd be cool if it would go away now that I've had a cleaning. (we'll see I work tonight)

And for the record...even if I told my dentist to pull my teeth I don't think she would lol.

Thanks KR, Fearful and Enarete for checking on me also and your kind words.
*hugs*

And yeah I got out pretty good this time...won't stop me from freaking out in April just as much...at least it's not a Fri. 13th though lol.

 

[oneby]

Sounds like we're on the same checkup schedule - October and April - with xrays in April. Xrays are always worrisome. Xrays show all. No hiding anything.

I had several cavities over the years but never worried much about my teeth either. Not until a couple of years ago when I was surprised to learn I had a cracked tooth. The dentists started talking about root canal and extraction and suddenly I felt panicked. But I also felt ashamed for some reason. Like this was somehow a moral failure or something. Thankfully, I ended up getting by with just a crown, which is fine now but was unnerving at the time. Since then I find myself nervous when going for my checkups.

I have a friend in his upper 40's - never had a cavity in his life. But recently his dentist discovered an infection deep inside his tooth, or it might have been the roots, and they pulled it. That just gives me one more thing to worry about.

I also get strange and uncomfortable sensations in my teeth sometimes, but the sensations are so very vague. Sometimes though it's psychological. Previous to my last check up I had felt such sensations for several weeks, but haven't felt anything since the appointment.