While most people just do not like going to the dentist, yours truly is terrified each and every time I go.
I thoroughly dread my 4 times a year visit and figure this is part of the reason I can not sleep or eat before (and after) I go.
My body tenses up completely and I have trouble breathing the assistants are always telling me to breath as they work on my cleaning. By the time they are done my body aches as much as it does when I have a fibro flare.
So tonight I have a sore and achy body as well as a sore mouth.
It wasn't always this way. When I was a child I happily went with my Mom to the dentist. After all you always got a bouncy ball after your visit.
However, there came a time when the dentist (a new one as my original dentist retired) decided that one of my baby teeth needed to be pulled to make room for my permanent teeth. I have always disliked needles and this day was no exception.
Mom heard me screaming in the waiting room and decided that perhaps she should check out what was happening. When she entered the room where I was situated, what met her eyes shocked her. There was her little girl being held down by two assistants with the dentist's knee on my chest (yep he was right up on the chair with me) trying to stick the needle in my mouth. I was screaming and tossing my head from side to side. Mom says I kept saying that I couldn't breath and the dentist just kept saying "Hold her still."
Mom yelled, the dentist removed himself from my body, the assistants let go of my shoulders and arms. Mom grabbed me and left the office. After that if I needed any work done she would take me to a dentist that would knock me out with gas.
I think I still might have that small girl inside, terrified that what happened once could happen again.
I do want to say that the dentists I have had as an adult have all been kind and caring. They always apologize for hurting me whenever I need that stupid needle, and are always ready to give me more freezing if I even flinch. In fact my old dentist (he passed away from cancer about 6 years ago) would always sit with me and calm me down.
Everybody have a wonderful evening.
God bless.
After having a bad experience...actually two...I am left with a jaw that can dislocate easily and I've had to work extremely hard to overcome my fear when years ago I would happily have had a filling with no pain relief. I'm just about there now but I remember pacing up and down the street outside and only going in at the very last moment. You didn't go to a dentist when you were a child, you went to a monster mouth engineer. Dentists are much kinder souls. Really! x
ReplyDeleteI used to be okay going to the dentist and in the past have had a few very good dentists, so good in fact that I was able to have work done without the dreaded needle. These days however I absolutely dread going to the dentist and start getting agitated the day before an appointment.
ReplyDeleteI'm not too bad with my present new to me dentist. He understands my fear and he injects the needle very slowly which isn't painful at all. At last I can see my fear subsiding.
Joan (Devon)
When I was a child, my mother took me to a dentist. He decided that since they were going to fall out anyway, he pulled six teeth and no freezing. Fast forward a few years and I had to be tranquilized before going to the dentist. I was the one who got the bad teeth in the family. I have had dentures since I was 22. I made sure my kids had good dentists their whole life. Know what you are going through.
ReplyDeleteYou poor thing, I can sympathise with you, I have had a real bad experience, by a denist who completely bodged up a crown and I was left with blood pouring out and was really ill for a few days, I was in so much pain my husband marched into the practice and gave them a right earful. The job was put right by a much better dentist, the other dentist struck us off there list, which was crazy as we hadn't done anything wrong.
ReplyDeleteDear one...I am the same way...I get so tense in the chair that my back has spasms...I always thought it was my olden age because when I was little, dentists HURT us....I still dread ea visit with a passion and I am about to have all uppers pulled and wear a false upper plate...bone loss is the culprit...the teeth themselves are ok mostly, but bone loss is making them all loose. I hope they will use LOTS of gas on me....
ReplyDeleteJackie, I am 66 years old. As a kid, all of the kids in my family hated going to the dentist. He did a lot of tooth pulling. He told me when I was little that I would have dentures by the time I reached 21. What a crap thing to tell a little kid!! After one visit by my sister and I, we both had terrible jaw and tooth pain for years. We used to call these sudden bursts of extreme pain "attacks", and they eventually subsided. Little shards of enamel or bone would work their way to the surface. By the time I was 18, I was working as a secretary in a city and took myself to a dentist. He was shocked at the gaps in my mouth and told me to marry a rich man. He was so kind and he took good care of what was left of my teeth. He passed, I married a man names Rich who was not rich but very kind, and he paid for me to wear braces and get bridges. We were in the service and moved a lot, and I had some dentists who used anesthesia so I could sleep through my visits. I still have all the teeth I had when I married Rich, and I take GOOD care of them!! I totally sympathize with not wanting to do to the dentist. Bless you!!!Mary
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