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Feeling Wobbly

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NoWhereKnowWhere

MyPTSD Pro
I've had a rough couple of days. Had to go to the dentist and it didn't really go well. It was a teaching dental surgery and it hurt, they broke the tooth as they were pulling it out and started to panic. I had to calm them down.

I don't have a dental phobia or anything any other time I've been to the dentist (which was pre trauma...a long time ago) it's been ok I mean no one loves the dentist but I've never had a problem before.

I was shaking and felt totally out of it after wards. My whole body hurts today I must've been as stiff as a board.

I'm just not really feeling great today. I need to keep my shit together I feel like I'm coming apart at the seams. Good things are happening I'm my life, I just need keep it together. Somthing little like this could derail me if I let it.

I feel stupid for feeling like this but at the same time I've been working on self compassion and I want to comfort myself but it's such a little thing to f*ck me up.

I dunno I just wanted to talk it out. I see my therapist tomorrow.
 
Wow. I'm really sorry that happened. It sounds pretty scary to me. I'm impressed you were able to stay as calm as you did. The dentist freaks me out on a good day! I hope this oases quickly for you! I don't have any great words of wisdom but I am sorry that you are going through that especially since you were cool enough to allow them to use the dental surgery as a learning experience!
 
Well it was free because it was students. I think I'll just pay or register with an nhs dentist (while I'm still eligible) next time.

I feel like it's my own fault I knew I needed to go to the dentist about that tooth, for over a year it's been hurting on and off. Maybe if I went earlier it wouldn't have been so bad. Although it could've been fine and I still wouldn't feel right after. Who knows.
 
Well I am in the medical field and we wouldn't be any where without the kind people who let us...for lack of a better word...."practice" on them....free or not!!!!

But the same thing just happened to a friend of mine at a oral surgeons office. He is really great and been in practice for years so I think it just happens sometimes. Bet it kind of freaked the students out!!!

I waited a long time to get a tooth fixed too. It didn't hurt all the time so by the time I got around to making the appointment it would feel better and I could convince myself that I didn't really need to! Then a couple months later it would start up again.

But hopefully sharing about it has made you feel some better.
 
Maybe a phobia isn't something you've already had, but developed. There's no shame in that. I think you're on the right track discussing it with your therapist.
 
Ugh! Sounds like a horrible experience - sorry to hear that happened.

I think your reaction sounds completely understandable - even if we don't have a dental/dentist phobia, we are in a vulnerable position when we're in the dentist's chair and when something with the treatment doesn't go to plan, that can be frightening. They broke the tooth, it hurt you, they all started panicking...sounds grim!

I wonder if your body went into shock a bit? And/or that you had a huge surge of adrenalin. Either/both those things are very likely, I think - and would account for the shakiness/feeling out of it afterwards.

I think you were really unlucky with this - nothing to blame yourself for. You haven't f*cked anything up here. You could have gone to a very experienced dentist and paid a very high fee and your tooth may still have broken and caused you pain (I guess chances are s/he might not have panicked as the students did - I suspect their panic significantly added to the stress of this experience for you). If anyone's f*cked up, it's them...but I suspect this was just one of those things...the tooth broke and that was unlucky...and then, yeah, they didn't deal with it brilliantly, hence you felt the need to take care of them because they were in a panic.

Yes, you could have gone to the dentist when the tooth first started troubling you. Would that have guaranteed you a better experience? Who knows?! I suspect not....no guarantees... But I don't think speculating about those kinds of what ifs is going to be a useful path for you. If you like, you can decide that, in future, you'll make an appointment as soon as a tooth starts to give you trouble. That may be a reasonable approach to take. But please don't take that to mean that what you did was unreasonable this time or that what happened was somehow your fault and something you've f*cked up.

I do understand feeling stupid about the impact afterwards and feeling like you've f*cked up a small thing. I have had very similar reactions to a number of medical procedures (not major surgeries, just straightforward things, but quite invasive things) and the impact has sometimes lasted for several days afterwards. And I always feel stupid about it and wonder why I can't deal with these very simple things. But it is what it is, and that's ok....beating ourselves up over our reactions isn't ever going to help, it will just make us feel worse. And actually, other people will often be far more compassionate about our experience. People have said my procedures sounded horrible and that they would have screamed the place down or refused to have it done. And I genuinely think your experience sounds scary and hideous. So, us feeling stupid about f*cking up this small, simple stuff...I think it's often that we minimise our experiences when, I actual fact, others see them as far from small, simple, innocuous experiences.

Take it easy - self-care, self-soothing, do something active to discharge the anxious energy....do whatever you need to do to recalibrate from this very unpleasant experience.

Hope you have a useful conversation with your therapist about it. If you need a follow up treatment, your therapist should be able to help you prep for that.
 
Yeah I felt a lot better after speaking about it with my T. I do tend to very cool in difficult situations and it isn't until after that I kind of crumple.

Thanks for your replys I just needed to talk it out I guess.
 
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