Why fear is bad!
Published 1 year, 2 months ago in My life.
Apologies to all dental hygienists and the like but this little anecdote begins at the dentist’s – and while I am a rational being and able to credit my dentist(s) over the years with many painless and successful procedures there is certainly still a shred or two of the terror I remember feeling as a child, brushing my teeth in the gutter after a school pick-up with my mum assuring me that all those fillings and extractions were hurting her more than they were hurting me!
So when my lovely Perth dentist recommended I have an errant wisdom tooth out I didn’t so much balk as procrastinate (for five years!). I couldn’t have it out now, I was pregnant, then breastfeeding, then pregnant again, and far too busy to spend any time recuperating from what I’d heard was a torturous procedure. At least those were the recounts I’d chosen to take to heart. And I wouldn’t have any problems with the tooth next to the angled wisdom, because I would be the one patient that would religiously clean that tricky gap.
Fast forward a few years and the torment (quite small really!) of the wisdom tooth extraction has paled in relation to the dramas of that poorly cared for tooth next door. First an enormous filling (“Could go root canal – 50/50 chance” grinned the dentist), then a split down the root and a cemented band, much pain, antibiotics and then … blissfully …. nothing.
Maybe it’s died I said hopefully – and I won’t need to have it out (pleading). The dentist gave in and said it could stay and be monitored.
Well now I wish I’d listened to all of the advice;
“Have that wisdom out or you’ll end up losing the tooth next to it”
“Get it out now, it won’t be a big deal”
“Probably best to just extract it”
“Let me know if it gives you any trouble at all”
Goodness, why would I do that when you would surely immediately suggest a DENTAL PROCEDURE??!!
Well now I have pain, an abscess according to the doctor, something terribly wrong with my ears and balance. And for some reason my lovely dentist is not returning my calls!
The moral of the story … frankly I have no idea but I think it might start with the word “should” and my friends always told me not to should myself. Hopefully I have learnt something from all of this, and perhaps I’ll work it out if the dentist ever calls me back!
4 Responses to “Why fear is bad!”
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Firstly……….SHOULD is a judgement and you should never never should on anyone, least yourself !!
Secondly…….I so empathise, I think pain in the body is a shocker at the best of time, but I think we practise our own reiki. If your head hurts, you hold it. if your arm hurts you hug it. But pain in the mouth is unconsolable !! Fear is the pits.
Thirdly, they say Dentists have the highest suicide rate, so I’ve trained my self to say, I hate the procedure, no the dentist.. But good luck, I’m thinking of you.
Oh you poor thing!
I too have a dentist phobia.
Nearly five years of braces as a teenager and eight teeth removed into the bargain gave me a perfect smile and a perfectly unreasonable fear of the dentist chair. So much so that I tend to only go when absolutely and unavoidably necessary.
However Al put me on to his dentist (a wonderfully gentle, holistic dentist) who is the first dentist I have ever encountered that doesn’t do procedures unless they are absolutely and unavoidably necessary. He says things like ” you have a small hole in this tooth but if I fill it you will just lose a lot of good tooth - so we will just keep an eye on it” I love him!
Plus he never makes me feel bad for not going to see him for three years!!
Whenever I go to the dentist and settle into the chair I think - I really should write about this experience: the shrill, grinding sound of a high speed drill on enamel, the smell of old blood and disinfectant, the blinding lights the pinch of metal on gum and the taste of Novocain.
But then the fear wraps itself around my brain and all I think about is not screaming. “Don’t scream, don’t scream. don’t scream'’. I don’t think I scream, but I don’t really remember.
Oh, sorry fly, have you been yet?
Don’t worry about it, it’s a doddle. Doesn’t hurt at all. You’ll be fine. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,ggggggghghghhghghghhghhhhhhurehrhiehierrihihhhihihhhh AAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
:)
Thanks for the sympathy ladies - and the laugh fossil (slightly hysterical though it was!)
I am now sans tooth and within a couple of days will be very happy to be so! Your dentist sounds great Golden - in the middle of my extraction I wanted to shout - “No - this is awful - I’ve changed my mind!!” but I fear it would have been too late and it would have made our professional relationship (dentist and client) somewhat awkward!
At least he has a nice picture to look at above the lights.
And I am going back with my 5 year old for his first dental appt in a week so I had to be very chirpy on my return on Thurs when I really wanted to sob on the couch!