I hate the dentist. I had an evil one when I was younger who didn't believe that Novocain was important so either he wouldn't use it at all or he would be very stingy with it. I was so scared of the pain that I never really went back. I have tried a few other dentists over the years, but was still so scared that I never really followed through on anything.
After so many years of neglect, I finally decided that if I am going to make my health a priority this year I need to suck it up and find a dentist that I can be comfortable with. I looked around for months and finally found one that does sedation dentistry and is covered by our insurance. Score!
So, last Tuesday I went in for the initial X-rays and to set up a treatment plan. I knew that I would need a lot of work. You can only ignore something for so long before it starts to cause you problems. From the moment I walked in the door I felt comfortable. I was taken back and they did a bunch of X-rays before the dentist came in. He asked all kinds of questions about why I was so scared, what my past was like, what problems I was having, etc. He was very gentle as he looked over my teeth and kept explaining what was going on.
Unfortunately, because I had let them go so long I needed a root canal on my one front tooth. We scheduled it for Monday and I was on my way. That night I ended up in excruciating pain. I wanted to rip the tooth out myself! I called the office and they gave me an antibiotic and pain meds said that if anything changed to call the office.
Well something changed all right. I woke up at 2AM on Thursday with half of my face swollen up. I looked like I had been in a bar fight. My husband did take a picture, but definitely NOT sharing. It wasn't pretty! I called the office as soon as they opened and they got my in at 10 that morning.
The root canal was a piece of cake. I didn't have any problems with that. However, the excessive swelling has been haunting me since. It was finally noticeably better by Friday night. Of course all of this had to happen with my parents and my husband's family coming to celebrate my sons birthdays.
My face is mostly back to normal. I still have a little swelling right where the tooth is, but it is getting better. Of course, my lovely 5 year old decided to share his cold with me so now I feel like crap from that. UGH!
Trying to look at the silver lining, I lost 3 lbs this week because I couldn't chew! The only other positive is that I finally found a dentist that I am comfortable with and can get everything taken care of.
If you are scared of the dentist like me, look into sedation dentistry. I ended up with just nitrous this time around, but they do offer oral sedation which I might look into for the bigger stuff coming up.
Do you have a fear of the dentist or are you one of those people who love to go?
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