Going to the dentist rarely hurts very much, compared, say, to falling off a bike or getting into a fight. So why am I a sweaty mess?

After a recent house move, I registered with a dentist, deliberately missed two appointments and had to sign on with another practice. Forced myself to attend the new appointment despite feeling like the noose was tightening around my neck. First two appointments were a huge relief; sorted out a collapsed filling and took lots of x-rays.

Now, thanks to the Scottish system, he’s pretty much going to rebuild my mouth for just £400. Can’t imagine what the actual cost would be without NHS intervention.

The fact is though, as soon as I lie down on the chair, I’m overcome with dread – my palms literally sweat, I focus my entire mind on the sounds, smells and vibrations. In fact, this happens weeks before the dreaded day if I’m honest.

Recently, I spoke to an old gadge who told me he does the whole thing without injections. He reckons he’s sitting on top of a snowy mountain the whole time. Could hypnosis help? Am I just being a bit soft?!

I’m pretty bad in the dentist.

Its the bloody injections thinking about them now gets stressed. That and the twenty minutes to get a tooth out…

Get the arm rests down on the chair drape your arms palm up and try gently touching your thumb to your middle finger tip and do gentle circles. Just so it kind of tickles and focus on that. When i do that i can then register my shoulder are up at my ears and let them drop. And relax. And keep doing it.

Works for me, can’t remember the irigin of the tip but they certainly have earned a pint.

in the same boat as you really… i went to the dentist in 2004 after about a 10 year absence and needed 10 filling, done over 3 visits, it changed the way i looked immeasurably and cost next to nothing (nhs patient) and i can’t remember there being any pain at all. since then i haven’t been back.

roll on to 2019 & trying to find an nhs one to take me proved fruitless but i needed to go as i’d been in pain for about 4 months… so i did, and i needed 3 filling and a deep clean….. the wife said i’d gone green as i was dropped off… yesterday….

the fillings didn’t remotely hurt in fact i almost fell asleep, literally, as he was doing them… but the deep clean… my god… that was agony i needed a shower when i got home due to the profuse sweating… and now i’m back at square 1 again! (i’m also £338 lighter!)

anyway, not sure what point i’m making here, but, you’re not alone…

Nope its no laughing matter, my sympathies. I got into a state over dentists a while ago, didnt go for years, pretty much as above. I found a dentist who spent three appointments just sitting me in the chair talking about music, whatever, and gradually got me desensitised. I can almost fall asleep lying there now, I just see it as an opportunity to lie down and do nothing for a bit during the day. I’ve even done the root canal stuff, and coped. Get a dentist you trust, stick with it, it’ll save a lot of pain in the long term.

Hmm. Guess it’s like getting into a car, lying down, closing your eyes and putting yourself entirely in someone else’s hands. But with massive trust issues!

Pretty sure the NHS won’t stump up for three appointments of me talking to a professional about mutual interests before commencing enamel maceration.

This new guy is pretty convincing – he’s on call for Balmoral when the family are in residence but yet, but yet…

Hmm. Guess it’s like getting into a car, lying down, closing your eyes and putting yourself entirely in someone else’s hands. But with massive trust issues!

Yeah, I think that’s it – total surrender of all control and the likelihood of at least some discomfort thrown in as a result
I don’t have a problem with dentists but I can see how you easily could

Obtain a buxom female dentist who is really good at her job.

This doesn’t help you needing dental work but it does mean that it will only need it doing once, and while it’s happening you will have said buxomness bouncing off of your cranium, which renders the whole process less awful.

I really dread going and now will only let my mate near my teeth. He lives and works in Sheffield and I’m in Houghton-le-Spring. So a “trip to the dentist” involves a 4hr /220 mile round trip.

If I have to have anything done, he whacks me full of memory inhibiting hypnotic drugs, which are blooming marvellous. Had a root canal and all I can remember is sitting down in the chair, trying to change music tracks on my phone half way through and then coming back up in his house. Pretty much the same for a wisdom extraction a few weeks later. Thoroughly recommended.

MrsDoris suffers from this and goes private. It’s expensive but you get this –

he whacks me full of memory inhibiting hypnotic drugs,

it means i need to pick her up in the car afterwards as she’s completely out of it, but it’s the only way she’ll go within 100 miles of a dentist.

She’s actually recently found a private practise here in Bristol that specialise in people with Dentistophobia. Treatment still to follow, but she’s been happy with the preliminary appointments so far. Might be worth looking out for something like this in your area?

Used to be very dentiphobic. Hate needles and previous dentist caused a lot of pain so was faced with a long list of work Inc 2 root canals, which to be fair were almost totally painless..

As someone above said, once it clicked in my mind that the anesthetic was working, I could have almost fallen asleep, which is huge improvement for me.

I eventually found one that specialises in nervy patients. Worth his weight in gold.

I actually don’t mind going now. There was one deep filling where the anesthetic wasn’t put in the right spot, apparently one of nerves he targeted was not quite where most people’s is.

As soon as I showed signs of pain he stopped the procedure, explained the above and rebooked the appt. Saying that he new the right spot for next time.

He was using a wand system though rather than traditional injection, the only slight downside is apparently its very targeted and local, so you have to get it in just the right spot compared to a normal injection which numbs a slightly larger area.

On the plus side though, for those that have problems with needles, it’s great, it’s still an injection so he prenumbs the area with some kinda gel or whatever it is they use, but the dose is flow rate controlled and temperature controlled by a computer, which makes for a notabley less traumatic injection.

You don’t get that horrible thing where the fluid drips down the needle and ends up in your mouth either.

And the business end looks more like a white pen the traditional horror inducing steam punk style syringes, so that helps me too.

If you think it’s going to hurt then it hurts more. If you can’t afford spend private dentists with nice drugs try and dose yourself up beforehand with valium or whatever you can get your hands on.

Your not exactly alone – around 40% would describe themselves as anxious, with about 12% of the population meeting the criteria of phobic. The best advice, echoing what already been said I’d ask for recommendations – some of us treat more anxious patients than others, usually because we like the challenge, and then develop skills in this area. Hypnosis can work for some , so can cognitive behavioural therapy, others benefit from sedation (which comes in a variety of types). This is still available via the NHS but only usually via referral to specialist services. Other practices / teams will offer it privately. The regulations and training requirements are quite strict, which is why it’s not as widely available as it used to be, though this means the teams left tend to do more of it, regularly.

The main specialist society is SAAD,

Be ask your friends and work colleagues, get a recommendation, or call into a local practice, explain the problem and ask. If they don’t provide a service they will know who does.

Best of luck!

My current dentist (a nice lady from Portugal) is very good at just gently easing in the painkiller.

I’d like to say it’s a delight to have her hacking around on my teeth, but that would be a lie, but it’s bearable and a lot less unpleasant than the consequences of going without dental treatment. That *really* hurts.

Yep same for me. Last time I had filling had to have special sedation. Can’t remember the name of the drug but you are basically awake but totally numb. Was not cheap process but I’d do it again. Obvs need someone to drive you home!

I’ve never been a huge fan of dentists but just sucked it up and carried on. Then i broke my jaw and had to go through the immense joy (sarcasm) of having each bit of wire snipped and wrenched back through my gums. I can only describe that as the most horrible thing ever, in fact I could barely walk afterwards because my body had gone into so much shock having had my face and mouth treated like glass and fastened together for the previous two months. Now I kind of get myself worked up because I expect it to hurt so much. However, its catch 22 because now I realise how precious my teeth are, I know I have to do something about it is as I’ve already lost three! A number of dentists still offer sedation and I would highly recommend it as you can’t really remember it. A friend recently had about 7 removed and a million fillings to fix his mouth after years of putting it off and he used his normal dentists recommendation to go to another practice within their chain that offered sedation and although it wasn’t pleasant for him, he did it.