Right, first dentists appointment for 2 years in two days and I’m panicking already.

I’ve got shit teeth although considering they’re all still my own at nearly 50 I suppose I’m not doing too bad, but they look crap. Anyway, I’ve always been terrified of the dentist, really, properly phobic. I’m guessing it started with my apparent immunity to barbiturates so as a child I remember some excruciating procedures. It was only as drugs changed that I started having treatments without any pain but the mental damage was done. I can’t say the word ‘Dentist’ without getting nervous. Palms sweating now just typing this. By Wednesday I’ll be in a state of mild shock and will be largely incoherent. I won’t be able to go straight to work afterwards, I’ll need to go home, get a shower and change my clothes because I’ll be drenched in sweat.

This is just a checkup by the way. Got it?

So, has anyone tried hypnotism or something similar to get them round phobias? Doesn’t have to be the Dentist, could be anything equally silly like birds, spiders or clowns?

I had dental fillings without local anesthetic when I was a kid at primary school … the pain … the pain … I mean it was torture. It hurts so much I wonder why the school dentist did not use local anesthetic. Bloody woman dentist.

Yes, it hurts very much … if you look at the drill the dentist are using when it drills into your teeth you can smell the heat sensation follow by paiiinnnn … look at the drill, the sound of that thing … worst case look at the bloody big metal syringe that they are going to stick into your gum … FFS! How long are those needle anyway … hurts like hell.

😕

Check this out dude, just found it now.

http://www.dentalfearcentral.org/forum/showthread.php?19574-Coventry-NHS-Dentist-HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED-for-phobic-patients!!-x

I too have the same response having had as a kid loads of fillings with no pain infections and even a crown on my front tooth done when I broke it in half and the root was exposed…….
But now the thought of having a simple examination and clean and polish is sheer terror…. Try using some Colgate Pro relief sensitive tooth paste for a starters but also tell the nurse and dentist just how shit scared you are and that you are scared of the pain. They will understand and since I did it’s been a hell of a lot better…I even had an extraction done with full nerve block that worked! Cleaning on one tooth is still super sensitive and he saw me flinch but overall he’s more gentle than the hygienist at my old dentists used to be.

This is just a checkup by the way. Got it?

He or she will keep prodding, poking, scraping and scratching at your teeth and gums until something hurts.

Valium. Job done.

If it’s any consolation, dental practices have come a long way since we were kids.

I do wish they wouldn’t refer to it as “practice” though.

Valium.
Seriously.

Last time I had a check up, he actually got a drill out – not the really high pitched one, but he needed to get a clearer view of something. So I’d probably be preparing myself for the worst.

Valium,

One the night before, and another on t’day. Getting hold of them is another story though.

Viagra, got it. Thanks.

Does morphine helps with the pain? Just thinking.. Souldnt be more painful than bullet wounds, or does it?

Different pain.

Have you spoken to the dentist about it?

Most practices will make allowances for phobic patients. The biggest one is just more time, allowing patients to sit in a normal chair sometimes helps. Seeing the instruments, and giving patients some to have a play with helps and using or operating the hand piece is another we started to do. Seeing what’s going into your mouth really akes a difference. You can ask for numbing gels to mask the pain of needles which are so small these days you’ll barely feel them anyway.

The best one though is one you’ll hate…Go more often than every 2 years. Go more like every 6 months, then stuff is caught earlier, interventions can be less traumatic, you get used to being at the dentist, and the dentist and nurse get to know you.

Last resort, talking to your dentist about sedation, although I rekcon a bit of aversion therapy and MTFU is probably all you need. 😉

It’s not the pain. It’s THE FEAR ❗

Ah no, I’d say the pain is more than the fear. Both is not a good combination, but it’s good to face up to what kind of experience you’re about to have.

This

If, during your check-up, the dentist suggests some procedure or other and give you the option of delaying it – DON’T. Much better to get it over and done with than suffer the anticipation.

I just had a check up and bi annual scale and polish with the hygienist today actually! 20-25 mins and it was done.

Sure, panic attacks are horrendous but the more you give in to them, the worse it gets.

All I would suggest is to keep your mind off it by keeping busy. As soon as it pops into your head, go do something, strip your bike down and rebuild it a few times, read a book etc. whatever floats your boat as long as you don’t start to obsess and fall into a panic cycle.

As for the appointment, just go in, be upfront with the dentist as, especially in that profession, they are more than used to varying degrees of anxiety, then lay down and let them do their job. In my dentist, they play music and have a tv with subtitles on the ceiling which is great as I just focus on that 100%. It’ll fly by and as a result, you’ll get a nice adrenaline kick after its al done!

Mrs climbingkev is a hypnotherapist, she’s not done fear of dentists but most other stuff. Generally things boil down to confidence, a bad experience, lack of knowledge etc. From what I can gather (there’s no way I’d let her hypno me, I’m not sure why, is just not my thing and it’s an approach that you need to mentally invest in whole heartedly) it boils down to a suggestive therapy where you’re educated in the outcomes of seeing the dentist, these benefits are then linked mentally to and outweigh your (irrational) fears and so the balance is subconsciously tipped in your favour and the fear subsides. She don’t swing a pocket watch and slowly say “it won’t hurt”.

You’ve mentioned hypnotherapy so are probably a good candidate for it.

You should talk through your fear with your dentist. For your checkup, remember, it’s just a checkup- they won’t do anything there and then. You may be surprised to learn that they can be just as scared when they’re in the chair too: mine has to travel 60 miles to see someone that doesn’t make him tremble and his wife did my root canal!

If you need to get anything done, the hypnotic/ memory impeding drugs are superb. Had a wisdom tooth out and lr7 root canal and capping back in feb last year over two procedures. The most memorable thing about it was the fact I can recall my iPod running out of music. It helps having a very close friend as my dentist but I’m still shit scared.

Samuri – Where are you based?

Worth finding a good, gentle dentist on recommendation (word of mouth, not based on adverts/price).

The biggest thing is having time spent examining properly, explanation of what is needed and why, and you having input too. Sadly, time is the most expensive part of dentistry. A good dentist should be able to relax you, or give you valium or similar to help. Full on sedation means you don’t know whats going on, but won’t help you conquer your phobias…

Don’t forget teeth should last for life, it’s pretty $hit if you can’t eat what you want…

And ignore all your friends, and never look on you tube!

I was in a similar position to you a few years back samuri. Properly petrified of the dentist after some bad experiences as a kid with a butcher at an NHS clinic. Hadn’t been for years but needed some work done desperately. Found a pretty understanding dentist and explained everything, had one appointment where we just spoke about what was going to happen, then another where I bottled it, after that I just basically did the MTFU thing. I took the iPod in and put it on full blast to drown out some of the noise. My teeth were a proper mess, had about 10 out and probably the same again had fillings, I managed to get through all of it which I never thought I’d be able to say a few years back.

Wigan based but would be prepared to travel.

Thanks all, I’ve been trying to avoid thinking about it but barely slept last night, tonight will be even worse I expect.

I do usually man up in these situations and just go but as above, I fall out of the habit very easily because I’m scared. The last time I went was to a specialist who needed to get an infection out from above one of my incisors. Had to cut into the gum above the tooth, get the infection out, pack it full of straw and sew it all back up again. Did the job and wasn’t painful at the time but I looked like I’d been beaten up the day after. Bloody awful procedure.

Last time in as at my (very expensive) dentist for some actual work, he starts with ” do you want anaesthetic” ? Apparently quite a few people just man up cos they don’t like drugs!

I used to hate needles more than i hated the dentist, as a result had a few procedures without anaesthetic.

I managed to overcome the needle phobia, and as a bonus dentist is nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

What was i thinking…….

Dentistsdrugs are great. Without them, we wouldn’t have these gems.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS3Olh9DnaE[/video]

Mrs Greno is a Dentist. I can tell you being a dentist sounds worse than going to the dentist…. rather her than me. 😕

I’ll take your word for it.

Right, visit completed. All went as planned. Profuse sweating, heartbeat nudging up to 200, bollocks crawling home. We negotiated me getting into the chair as well as me pointing out that any unexpected activity would likely find me leaving it again. He had a root (sic) around, took some x-rays.

3 fillings and a crown needed. 🙁

He criticised my dental hygiene regime (I have some gum disease apparently) but took some encouragement to tell me what I should be doing, no-one has ever told me I don’t brush properly before, in fact I’ve been told the opposite a number of times. After some discussion he eventually got out a set of teeth and showed me how to brush, which was a bit of an eye-opener. I’m nearly fifty by the way and have seen many, many dentists.

Appointments for fillings made, crown/root canal work to come once my gums are sorted.

I’m relaxed again for a couple of weeks.

Getting there in the first place is the hardest part. I found that once I’d been in a couple of times it wasn’t AS bad but I was still getting a bit antsy. I didn’t mind the needles but the main thing was the noise of the drill and the feeling of it doing what it does. Music helped as did just closing my eyes and not thinking about it.

Good luck.

Good work! I crawled into a ball on the floor and shook when my mate told me what he needed to do to mine.

I have to go back soon as I think cutting sellotape with my teeth while wrapping Christmas presents has caused them to clash together and dislodged a deep filling (yes, seriously).

After coming off second best in an argument with a BMW I needed some dental work done, and I’m dentalphobic. Was recommended a dentist who sedated patients – needle in the back of the hand and don’t remember anything else until being escorted out of the surgery.
No driving for a while afterward and you need someone to take you home, and it cost a bit extra on top of the treatment – criminal injuries paid so I don’t know how much it was. Would recommend it though

Has this place gone soft!
Not one person telling the OP to man up,
I’m off to that body building forum where they are still arguing about how many days there are in a week 😀
OP well done for facing your fears but MTFU.

i’d not been to a dentist in 15 years before last year, not that i’m phobic, just lazy and disorganised. Quite possibly i’m odd, but i like going to the dentist now – it’s strangely relaxing. I nodded off during a root canal just before xmas! It’s very little like i remember it being in the 80s-90s – none of that rank pink water for a start

I nodded off fainted with agony during a root canal just before xmas!

I had a massive phobia of Dentists born of always having a filling when I went as a kid and then later on in life having a couple of visits to a very dodgy dentist who seemed to cause more problems than he solved.

Forward a few years and during an intensely emotional point in my life (my wife left me) I started going again and spent hundreds of £s making my teeth good again, its was like therapy to take my mind of my emotional crisis.

Now going to the dentists is a breeze, although the Hygienist is another matter, sets my teeth on edge just thinking of it.

I hadn’t visited a dentist for almost twenty years…until ten years ago when I broke a tooth on a hula hoop(the snack, not child’s the toy). There was virtually nothing left of it, so the dentist said he was going to extract it.

Even though it took two hours and increasingly larger pliers being sent for, the roots are still down there. I looked like I’d been in a fight with a boxer, but with the anaesthetic, I didn’t actually feel anything. A wisdom tooth at the back has actually moved forward into the gap left.

And when I broke another tooth(I didn’t even feel it go), I had a crown. Cue the anxiety. The new dentist said I was going to be difficult, so gave me a prescription for a “relaxant”.

He did an x-ray and the roots from the previous extraction are still there, he said they looked OK.

Didn’t feel anything, But I almost jumped out the chair when he removed the temporary crown a few weeks later, I was expecting an injection first or something.

While I don’t like going to the dentist, Its a less anxious experience than it used to be.

Its interesting how my previous dentist and hygienist recommended stuff like mouth wash, this caused staining, the new dentist said he doesn’t recommend it, unless you have gum disease.

Doctors don’t really dole out the benzos these days.
Next best remedy is Benadryl – for hayfever but also has an anti-anxiety effect.
Plus a shot of vodka for the sounds of pain as you wait in the dentists’ reception.

My father was a dentist.

I remember him doing a course on hypnotism as an alternative to anaesthesia in the late 50s.

Back then dentists used to do the anaesthesia themselves, and there had been a few misfortunes, so hypnotism looked like a safer option.

Doctors don’t really dole out the benzos these days.
Next best remedy is Benadryl – for hayfever but also has an anti-anxiety effect.
Plus a shot of vodka for the sounds of pain as you wait in the dentists’ reception.

I think they should give you a couple for things like flying/the dentist. Fair enough not prescribing them long-term. They can be evil things when they’re abused.

I have come across one condescending doctor who tried to convince me that 2 low doses of valium would cause addiction and a ruined life. I pointed out that she could prescribe a small, controlled dose, of known quality in a controlled environment. Or I could just buy a tub of 1000 of some Indian Website.