going to the dentist

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I have dental anxiety, not to mention a severe gag reflex, so I was taking Halcion to sedate me before my appointments (need to go to a dentist who is licensed in conscious sedation if you go that route). It worked well, but put me in a stupor for almost the whole day and required me to find someone to drive me there and pick me up, so dental cleanings became major events.

Then I did a little online research and decided to try acupuncture. Wow, it worked, and now I get acupuncture before every dental appointment. I'm alert, but totally relaxed, I can drive myself, and I don't gag.

Also, I have trouble picking up the phone to make appointments, so I make the next appointment before I leave the dental office, and then I get an email reminding me of the appointment the week before, which also gives me an online option to confirm. This sytem works very well for me, and going to the dentist is no longer a big deal.

pretty sure i haven't done my dentist visits for too many years... -_-

worst experience.

I have some work I've been getting done over the course of several visits. I hadn't been to a dentist in forever before that.

The first appointment, in which he just poked around and figured out what he needed to do, was so bad I was almost totally nonverbal afterward, which sort of sucks when you're in the middle of a meltdown and would like to be able to tell someone what's happening. Luckily, I lost all my people-related skills, too, so it's not like I was lonely or anything. But subsequent visits, with all the drilling and stuff (and I refuse to let him dull my senses in any way, so no anesthetic of any sort), have been a little fun. Only a little, though. Mostly they leave me really exhausted. But it's not a really bad exhausted, like after a meltdown. It's just feeling tired.

This one doesn't do fluoride. That's such a horrible sticking-point with all the others, who feel like refusing gives them free rein to insult you and refuse you care. But I like this guy. In subsequent visits, I've even kept my people-skills and speech (well... except when he's actually working on my mouth), so I've been able to determine that his personality is at worst unobjectionable.

I'm really torn on the matter of how I feel about it, because on the one hand, the pain is terrible, just terrible, and I spend the entire time praying for it to be over and clawing at my stomach and tensing my calves so hard they hurt. But on the other hand, it's neat to watch the procedures. (For a loose definition of watch.)

I cannot stand them, i hate the light sineing in your face and then fiddling in the mouth, sorry about bad spelling,
but i just hate and wont go on my own, so i not been in a good few years...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibuprofen
...is my friend. I eat "Ipren" like Dr House consume Vicodin at times.

I'm not afraid of the dentist at all, its just that my wallet gets certain side effects when entering such an establishment so i do not go there as often as i should.

The depressions i had earlier in life has done its damage... and now i'm paying for it again - literally.

Sometimes i feel like as if i should just pull everything out and get a $75 blender... that would be cheaper in the long run.

Hey, I have all my teeth and eat most of my food blended anyway. If you do end up having to go that route, I can think of worse things. I LOVE my smoothies.

I didn't do to any dentist for about five years. It did not end well...

After several thousand dollars of remedial treatment and excruciating pain, I've learned that regular visits are worthwhile.

I'm ashamed of how wimpy I used to be about routine discomfort and pain during cleanings. Rather than the absolute level of pain, the most disturbing aspect was my perception that the hygenist or dentist was unaware or indifferent. Once i got past that and was willing to trust the other people then the pain was always tolerable and the preventive care ensured there were not painful complications.

The dentist is one of my worst OCD fears. I have a long history of cavity obsessions/fears. I used to suffer the most intense and debilitating panic attacks before the dentist, since I went undiagnosed for the first 17 years of my life. From age 17-21, I managed to get regular intensity panic attacks during dentist visits, due to the help of Klonopin. After I started Anafranil two years ago, however, my daily panic attacks, even ones over going to the dentist, have dissipated. I didn't even need a Klonopin the last time I went. This is one of the many reasons Anafranil is my miracle medication.

My AS also plays in to my hatred of the dentist, in the form of sensory issues. I LOATHE the part of the check-up exam where they pick the tartar/plaque off of your teeth. The sound is excrutiatingly grating, and it makes me feel like my teeth are being chipped off. This was doubly horrible when I had braces as a teenager, and it would take 45 minutes to clean around the braces' brackets. *shudder*

Ironically, the ONLY part of the dentist I enjoy is the fluoride treatment. I love the taste and smell of the strawberry fluoride. And the people at the dentist always tell me that everybody else they treat hates the fluoride. I would eat the fluoride, if I could. It tastes so good.
-OddDuckNash99-

I absolutely hate the dentist. I have anyone in my mouth -- it's absolutely intrisive and I don't like having to deal with instruments that I know have been inside someone elses mouth being used on my own. I will go to the dentist, but I usually have to make and cancel an appointment at least once before I actually make it there. I only go out of understanding that it's important to my heath, and even then I get terrible anxiety beforehand...

That said, I am in need of a root canal within the next few months and have yet to call the oral surgen. I have to build my courage up to that -- I'm afraid I'll end up in the office and have a panic attack. I am in the middle of having my anxiety medication switched right now.

Be thankful you can get a root canal. I'm on medicaid which means no root canals and no crowns. If a tooth goes bad enough to need a root canal or a crown, medicaid will only pay to have it pulled out. After all the teeth are pulled out, medicaid will pay for dentures. The program is not at all invested in helping people keep their teeth.

God, I'm sorry. It's only recently that I got insurance -- I was myself on medicade before. And even now, they won't cover a lot of things relating to mental illness.

And that's absolutely stupid! I cannot believe that the program is set up that way. I hadn't realized the dental specifics before as I was only dealing with my medication for anxiety and issues getting aid for those forms of issues.

I hope I didn't come across as lecturing or anything. I mostly just wanted to show you that there is a bright side to your upcoming root canal (and something as nasty as a root canal could use any bright side one can find!!)

When I first got on medicaid, it paid for one cleaning visit per year and any emergency tooth needs, like having a tooth pulled or filled.

Then, for a while, it didn't pay for any dental except for emergency, like if your teeth got smashed out accidentally. So for the better part of a decade, I didn't visit the dentist at all.

But after a few years of not paying for cleaning and check-ups, they realized that they were spending *more* money on dental than before, so they went back to paying for check-ups and cleaning, but now they pay for them every six months instead of every twelve months like before. And they pay for fillings again now.

I cry, shake and jump at the dentist.. The dentist nearly cut the side of my mouth once because I involuntarily jumped so high..

So, I was getting sedation for even a teeth cleaning before.. My insurance won't pay for that anymore, so I called the "special needs" person for the dental office and she said I should be able to get laughing gas for my teeth cleaning.

I don't know how many other people know that they can get special accommodations like this if they ask for them.

I guess I am one of the few that love going to the dentist. I even went to a 10 week school to become a dental assistant.

Going to the dentist isn't my favorite thing in the world, but I don't dread it.

I invested a lot in my teeth (see overbite/underbite poll) and the dentist takes good care of them.
Luckily I have perfect teeth. Only thing he does is scrape away plaque. I'd avoid getting plaque if I didn't drink coffee so much but hey, I need that stuff

Caroline, I go to my dentist's office every 6 months for my scheduled cleaning and I absolutely love it.

l like my hygienist, as for my dentist, I can do without -- he's boring and does not seem to care about me.

My advice is to keep switching hygienists (like a hair stylist) until you find one that you like. My hygienist talks a lot and actively tries to engage in conversations that interests me.

Also, I love how my teeth feel so smooth and clean when I leave the office.

If worst comes to worst, there is sleep dentistry, but that may be out of budget constraints.

The catch is that if you skip the regular 6 month cleaning intervals, the hygenist has to scrape harder and longer along the gum line to clear plague.

Quality of life depends on enjoying food and being healthy so figure out how to see the dentist/hygienist every 6 months!