Dentist Anxiety Rant

[Upside Down Eagle]

This isn´t an informative post or a question. I know you guys listen, and understand, and that´s all I need, at this moment.

Because I´m just so effin´ angry and sad. I´m so angry this is happening again. I went to a new dentist, they´re said to be an "anxiety dentist" who knows how to manage patients with severe anxiety symptoms.

When I get in a dentist chair and they start poking about, wandering around me, opening and closing doors, I get such severe anxiety that my head starts spinning, I start sweating, hyperventilating, and get blurry vision.

They said that they would consider my anxiety but they did no such thing, and as it turns out I have four cavities, one of them very close to the root canal. So they need to be treated, but I sure know that I´m not coming back if they don´t start listening.

I feel like they put a threat above my head, in the sense of "you need to come back or you´ll be in terrible pain" (which is true), but I can´t tolerate what they´ll do to me, unless they put me under complete anaesthesia or actually take into account my traumas.

 

[Neverthesame]

I suppose you didn't really want much in the way of a reply, sorry. Couldn't help myself. If all you wanted was to be listened to, you were. Feel free to stop reading here. No need to reply or anything.

The rest of this is just me prattling on as usual.

I hate dentists.

Always painful. The best one I have seen did good work, can't complain about that. But she had a heck of a time with the local. She kept getting the angle of the needle a bit wrong for the rear bottom, stabbing a nerve every time. Not the worst thing, but trying not to jump when it hit the nerve took some doing. The last thing I wanted to do was shove it deeper. Though this really is the only complaint I have about her. Sadly she changed practices and is now in a different city.

She was great for anxiety though. I went to her practice the first time from a rather painful toothache, my teeth are rubbish. (I also wasn't taking very good care of them, if I'm honest.)

She looks in my mouth sees the repair work that needed doing, asked me why I had so much damage to my teeth. I told her I have an anxiety disorder, a habit of clenching my jaw while asleep, improper care and a unhealthy fear of dentists since the last one I visited. She then talked about fixing the tooth after the infection cleared, usual dentist stuff.

What struck me was that this was the first dentist ever, that didn't give me shit, about my teeth. She actually listened to the part where I said that most of the issues were my own fault. She then didn't lay a massive guilt trip on me like every other dentist I have ever seen had done.

I was in enough pain as it was, from the abscess that brought me there in the first place. I didn't have the mental fortitude to handle being scolded like a child.

Besides a prescription for antibiotics, she also gave a shot of lidocaine for the road. So I was able to eat something for the first time in two days. This was also the first time she jabbed that nerve. Lol.

I hope you can find a dentist that will listen.

 

[Upside Down Eagle]

Hi Neverthesame :)

Oh that´s totally okay though!
It was just a rant, true, but I don´t mind answers at all - in fact it makes me feel better because I know I´m not alone in dentist hate.

She was great for anxiety though. I went to her practice the first time from a rather painful toothache, my teeth are rubbish. (I also wasn't taking very good care of them, if I'm honest.)

That´s the most important part, to me. That they´re friendly and patient and know how to deal with you. Today I went (again) for a routine clean-up with the dental hygienist and the experience was so much better than with the dentist. She told me to breathe in and out of my nose, she asked whether I was o.k and she let me rest for bits in between. Much better.

She looks in my mouth sees the repair work that needed doing, asked me why I had so much damage to my teeth. I told her I have an anxiety disorder, a habit of clenching my jaw while asleep, improper care and a unhealthy fear of dentists since the last one I visited. She then talked about fixing the tooth after the infection cleared, usual dentist stuff.

I do the exact same thing. Bits of my front four teeth keep chipping off because I clench, as well. And yes dentists also lay the guilt trip on me every time. Doesn´t matter when I explain to them what´s going on, they say "do it anyway". Well yeah, I could have thought of that, and it doesn´t work, right? :P

I´m glad you had a good dentist like her. I feel like most dentists are way too impersonal. They have a TV set hanging above you so you get distracted by the TV (I asked her to switch it off), instead of actually having a personal connection with them. All I know about that stranger who´s poking about in my face, is her name. That´s it.

This is actually a new dentist so I am going to try to explain to her, that the way she dealt with me before was not o.k.
I shouldn´t have gotten a panic attack in the first place - that means that things were already going awry.

Thanks for sharing :happy:

 

[SeekingAfrica]

OMG, I thought I'm the only one feeling this way, and thinking it's childish of me to admit. I was always afraid and not liking dentist appointments, who does anyway...But ever since I have PTSD in the last years, my anxiety changed from abnormal but tolerable to going through the roof, and I'll admit I have been lucky not to need to go to the dentist...but also being unable to do so anyways, especially after moving in new city with language I only now speak even on conversational level. So I was just praying I won't need to go to dentist, because I wouldn't be able to handle it much.
Recently I know that there is some reason to go. I'm pretty sure I need few things fixed, but I'll admit I've left it for later for a while because it's at a level that I can tolerate and my anxiety wasn't. Still isn't. But now that I'm closer to having a normal life than ever, I want to take care of the things I've ignored in these years, health-wise and in everything. But I am so afraid of going to dentist exactly for this reason. I want to have a dentist that will speak to me in English and won't mock how I'm in a new city for few years and haven't perfected the language. I want a dentist that will get that if I have let things go unchecked, it's for a reason. And I want a dentist that will get that PTSD and anxiety are complex and help me through it. I don't want to be scolded, it would pretty much ruin the small amount of strenght I finally gathered. I'm also afraid of the whole process. So I want the dentist to take a look at everything, let me know all that needs doing, and then just let me schedule all the things one by one, monthly, not weekly, let me spread them out with some weeks apart so I have time for mental preparation. I'm most afraid that I would have to have a nerve removed, or worse, a tooth pulled. I've had both done, and there is no way in making it pleasant or easy. Even with sedation, the pulling felt very forced to me and it was hard to let it happen. That was unfortunate badly growing wisdom teeth and I was a teenager. And it was still horrible. Now with this anxiety it would be much worse. Sorry for my own rant...I haven't yet figured out how to deal with this issue. I've never admitted it until now. My recent decision was to research few places I can go to, find a good one, and spread out whatever needs fixing over the next year. I feel horrible, but that's where I'm at. I've proven that I can handle a lot over the last years, but this one thing is totally out of my range currently. Sorry for the rant again.:/