I'm scared (hugs welcome)

[rhubarbodendron]

Please keep your fingers crossed for me today: I have an appointment with my dentist in 90 mins - broke off a tooth directly at the root and now the root must get pulled which is kinda difficult when there is no tooth attached to it by which you can grab it.

Due to very bad dentistical experiences in the past, I'm pretty scared. I'm not afraid of pain but I soooo loathe the grating sound when the fibers that hold the root in place tear up. Ick! I've loaded my mp3 player with especially loud music, just in case. And with a few murder mysteries (to fit the bloody topic LOL)

I hope the root will come out easily. The dentist claims he can see a shadow around it on the x-ray that indicates that it's already coming lose. However, I have a suspicion that he's just trying to say something soothing...

At any rate, hugs and thumbs up would be highly welcome right now.
(If you have something bad to say, to flame, taunt or ridicule me, feel free to do so, but please do it in a new thread )

 

[Amaris]

{HUGS}

 

[rhubarbodendron]

aww thank you! (((hugs back)))

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Good luck to you, Rhubarbodendron. I hope it's relatively painless, so to speak. Dentists are never much fun.

 

[Kestra]

In situations like this, the anticipation is usually worse than the actual event. It will be over soon and then you can relax. In the meantime, be brave!

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Thank you, Deranged Nasat and Kestra

The hugs helped: the root came out quite smoothely. The dentist said he'd have to rock and jiggle it a bit to losen it, and then he said "excavator" and I thought that's it, now he'll pull it. But he kept rocking the tooth and all of a sudden told me to sit up. I thought he had encountered a problem and needed a break, but he was done already! I'm soo relieved!

In 6 weeks I'll get a bridge to cover the gap. At this rate, by the time I'll be 100, I'll have no teeth left.

 

[Tiberius]

Yay! Glad it all went well!

 

[Shanndee]

I'm so glad there was relatively little trauma! I really feel for you...I have had a lot of work done on my teeth over the last 2 years. It is far from fun, but it feels so much better when its taken care of!

belated hugs!

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Sorry I didn't get here in time to send a hug, but I'm glad it went more smoothly than you'd expected.

 

[Rhaven]

I'm glad the procedure went better than you expected. Even though it's over, you still deserve a big.....

{{{HUG}}}

 

[rhubarbodendron]

aww, thank you all! You are so sweet!!

When I was a child, in the 60s, the local anesthetics weren't that good yet and so the dentists wouldn't give any to children. If you grow up with the equation dentist = horrible pain it sticks in your memory. Even though I know that nowadays I have nothing to fear, my subconscious memories kick in the moment I sit down in that dentist chair.
Fortunately, my current dentist is of the sort that should get "wrapped in tin foil and framed" as my granny used to say. He's excellent at distracting me (and as I found out today dentist humour is even worse than surgeon humour). A pleasant change after the many bad examples of his profession I have suffered under. I really mustn't forget to thank the colleague who recommended him to me.



Hmm, thinking of the situation with a little emotional distance: I wouldn't have been half as scared had I gotten a toenail ripped out instead. Is it possible that we are more scared of dentists because the dentists do something to our heads? Is it perhaps some primeval instinct that drives us to protect our heads / brains / lives?
But then, why aren't we afraid of hairdressers? (On the other hand, being scared of barbers would seem justified. Just think of Sweenie Todd. And many children are indeed afraid of getting their hair cut.)

 

[Deranged Nasat]

(On the other hand, being scared of barbers would seem justified. Just think of Sweenie Todd. And many children are indeed afraid of getting their hair cut.)

I was terrified of getting my hair cut as a child. My mother thinks it was because of an incident when I was 3 - a hairdresser told me I had to sit still or she would accidentally cut my ear off. It was a joke, but apparently I didn't take it as such and presumably had, from then on, the subconscious suspicion that hairdressers would casually flip their scissors around and send bits of my flying off in all directions while saying "whoops" and "sit still, deary".

 

[Mr Silver]

Thank you, Deranged Nasat and Kestra

The hugs helped: the root came out quite smoothely. The dentist said he'd have to rock and jiggle it a bit to losen it, and then he said "excavator" and I thought that's it, now he'll pull it. But he kept rocking the tooth and all of a sudden told me to sit up. I thought he had encountered a problem and needed a break, but he was done already! I'm soo relieved!

In 6 weeks I'll get a bridge to cover the gap. At this rate, by the time I'll be 100, I'll have no teeth left.

It's never as bad as you think it's going to be. A few months back, I needed to have some pretty extensive dental work done. I first had root canal treatment, followed by eight fillings (including two that were pretty deep due to the level of decay). This was carried out over a three week period, so naturally it was pretty gruelling. I do have to say though, that the ordeal was fractional compared to the pain and ongoing problems I had to put up with prior to the work.

I've only ever had one bad experience with a dentist, and it seems that "one bad experience" is the most that the majority of people have with a dentist.

 

[Redfern]

Admiral_M's situation outdid mine, my first root canal followed by the reconstruction of two fillings, which later had to be ground into "pegs" for the upcoming placement of two crowns (slated for next Tuesday). And he's right, as "traumatic" as the treatment is, the pain I suffered before anything could be done was far worse. (Didn't help that EVERY dentist in my town took the entire week of July 4th for vacation when my tooth started to absess.)

These two crowns will bring my total to five, not to mention the fillings in all of my molars. Yes, I brush regularly. The doc' thinks it's the tetracicline I had to take as a toddler. Stains teeth right down to the "pulp" (even "budding" teeth) and in some patients, like me, weakens the enamel.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[RJDiogenes]

I'm glad things went better than expected. I've had a few traumatic tooth experiences over the years, so I know all about the dental fear.

 

[doubleohfive]

Been there, done that.

Sending hugs and sincerest well wishes for a speedy recovery.

The good news is, there wasn't anywhere near the amount of pain I had feared or expected and very soon - much sooner than I thought possible - I was back to normal.

 

[propita]

By the time I read this, it was all over! Glad to hear everything went so much easier than you had feared. I totally understand your fears.

Here's a hug anyway.


@ Redfern: Five crowns? Amateur!! 15 crowns on 8 molars, 3 of them root canal-ed, 1 of those pulled and an implant put in. But let's not make this a competition.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Thank you, and a biiiig hug to all who posted here {{{{{{{BBSers}}}}}}}

And there I thought my teeth were in a bad condition!

When I was a child, the dentist told my parents that my jaw was too narrow for the wisdom teeth and I needed 8 teeth pulled to make room. I got 4 pulled and then went on strike. Later it turned out that the idiot hadn't looked on his x-rays or else he'd have seen that I have only one wisdom tooth (which made no probs ever and had enough space after all).
A few years later, 2 molars got holes and dentist #2 insisted that they needed to be pulled instead of being repaired.
Since in the lower jaw I was now lacking all 6 big molars (counting the missing wisdom teeth as well), I was chewing only on the 4 small ones and consequently 2 of the upper molars broke under a pressure they were not built for. So I got my first crowns due to the stupidity of dentists #1 and #2.

Later, another dentist told me that 2 of the missing lower jaw molars had to be substituted else I'd get jaw problems. I had to get 4 healthy teeth ground down to pegs and covered with crowns to use as foundations for 2 free-end bridges.
10 years later, one of the crowned teeth under one of the bridges broke and had to be removed. I had been to a control only 3 weeks before and told the dentist that the tooth didn't feel right. He could have saved the tooth then, but didn't bother.
So the stupidity of dentist #3 cost me 3 crowns and 1 tooth.

I then decided to get 3 implants instead of the 3 missing teeth and the bridges. At another dentist, of course

The recently broken tooth was one of the crowned ones that had splintered because of the high pressure. Implants in the upper jaw are a bit risky as they could protrude into the sinuses - I have herpes in my mouth and throat and the virus could spread along the implant and reach the brain, leaving me dead at best, feeble-minded and paralyzed at worst. Hence, this time Ill go for a bridge again. I'll have to sacrifice another tooth as a peg for the bridge, but at least the second fastening point for the bridge will be an inlay, replacing a filling. It's expensive but at least I won't have to sacrifice 2 teeth but only one.

Overall dentist bill so far (and all due to or based on the failures of dentists) : approx. 20,000 $ with the new bridge going to cost me about 1600.


I dare say my bank account fears dentists even more than I do

 

[propita]

Dude! While I said "not a competition," I bow before you and everything you had to go through! Holy cow!

 

[Mary Ann]

Glad it went well. I had an upper molar pulled a year ago, and I know exactly what you mean about that horrible sound it makes. My dentist told me I was lucky it was an upper molar and not a lower one for the very reason you've had so many issues.

I can lay claim to having had upper jaw surgery 32 years ago when my jawbone was literally cut into four pieces and realigned. That surgery went very well, which probably explains why I don't dread dentists' chairs. When I had that molar pulled I was joking around so much that my dentist gave me the pulled tooth in a tooth fairy bag usually given out to children having milk teeth pulled. I still have the tooth in that bag.