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Dentist - Squeamish behind cut. Except the needles bit which isn't that bad
Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 12:36 pmSo I went to the dentist on Monday evening. Having established at a previous appointment that I have eight fillings (count them, eight), four on each side, two each top and bottom each side, I thought I was going in for two. When I got in there, the dentist asked me how many we were doing that day, and I said to do as many as possible so that I could go there as little as possible. The meant going for all four on the right-hand side.
Side note here: Going to the DENTIST is a very scary experience for me. For one, I have this fear of going to the dentist, possibly linked to childhood experience from before my concious memory. For two, needles. Very scary. The third reason I avoid them is that I knew there'd be a bunch of stuff for them to do so money issues right there. Also pain, naturally.
Having seen my anxiety at the first appointment, they gave me this thing to breath on to calm me down. At any time I was allowed to have additional breathing on this. It tasted like liquid paper chewing gum, or methylated spirits mixed with something sweet. So after breathing on this for a while they give me three needles, one down the bottom and two up the top. I mangled the dentist assistant's hand a bit, poor lass. NEEDLES. SCARY. They were drilling down the bottom and I told them that I felt something, kinda like a fat pinch, hardly anything. So they give me .... another needle. Great. They said that sometimes there's an additional set of nerves that doesn't always respond at the same time as the first set of nerves that the first needle is aimed at. They do the bottom two fillings, then the top back filling, then they start the fourth one. They seem to do things differently on this one, but I figured it was because it's a different shape to the rest. After they finish everything and I've sat up, they tell me they had to start a root canal on that tooth and I no longer had a nerve in that tooth (whether it wasn't there to begin with or they removed it I'm unsure). Eternally grateful they told me after, because my reaction was to draw my knees up to my chest *heh*. They knew I was anxious and accomodated me wonderfully. They said that they would have to have a few more sessions on the root canal tooth. More dentist later *whimper sigh*. They put in a temporary filling for that tooth that I was to treat gently for 24 hrs until it was hard enough to withstand things like chewing and teeth brushing.
The needles made the side of my face all numb, right up to the side of my eye. My right eye felt funny when I blinked. My tongue felt very big for my mouth on that side and I constantly reminded myself to be careful not to bite it (I didn't bite it, go me!). I could still feel the other side of my tongue just fine though, like I had half a tongue. I joked that I could be the Phantom of the Opera or Two-Face from Batman. *heh*
Booked in for the other side of my mouth Monday 13th March. Would've been this coming Monday, but it's a public holiday (mixture of yay but boo cos no getting dentist over and done with)
I woke up in the middle of the night on that Monday night with...toothache. On the right side, the side they worked on. Bad enough for me to reach for the painkillers. Next day I was having aches on and off, Tuesday night wake up in pain again, Wednesday on and off. Called them that afternoon and asked them if it was bad or was normal and would fade away. They said that it may be a high spot on the surface of one of the new fillings, causing my jaw to not sit properly and putting pressure on odd places. Thought that made sense, with it being off and on aching. Made an appointment for 10am Friday, earliest free spot available. I chewed on the that side of my mouth last night though, and my teeth seemed to behave oddly. Iit felt to me like it was in connection with the temp filling. So I'll ask them about that on Friday too. The proper fillings feel fine (they set before you get of the chair, with the aid of this cool light thing that operates on a similar wave to ultra-violet) but the temp filling feels real odd, like a foreign object sitting there. Can't wait for the work on it to be done and a proper filling take it's place.
Regarding price, well thank goodness for credit cards. Not like it was thousands of dollars or anything, but it was more than I get in my bank account after tax each week.
So that's my dentist story. Also, as an interesting aside: They asked me if I ever had my wisdom teeth out to which I replied no. Apparently I don't have any, never grew them. Cool! It's just as well, because my teeth fit in my mouth pretty good and the wisdom teeth would've been crowded. I have this thing about not getting wisdom teeth out (not sure where it originated) so it would've been annoying if I had them *grin*.
( Now for the possible squeamish bits )
a bit of space for the squeamish commenters who don't want to read behind the cut when commenting.
Side note here: Going to the DENTIST is a very scary experience for me. For one, I have this fear of going to the dentist, possibly linked to childhood experience from before my concious memory. For two, needles. Very scary. The third reason I avoid them is that I knew there'd be a bunch of stuff for them to do so money issues right there. Also pain, naturally.
Having seen my anxiety at the first appointment, they gave me this thing to breath on to calm me down. At any time I was allowed to have additional breathing on this. It tasted like liquid paper chewing gum, or methylated spirits mixed with something sweet. So after breathing on this for a while they give me three needles, one down the bottom and two up the top. I mangled the dentist assistant's hand a bit, poor lass. NEEDLES. SCARY. They were drilling down the bottom and I told them that I felt something, kinda like a fat pinch, hardly anything. So they give me .... another needle. Great. They said that sometimes there's an additional set of nerves that doesn't always respond at the same time as the first set of nerves that the first needle is aimed at. They do the bottom two fillings, then the top back filling, then they start the fourth one. They seem to do things differently on this one, but I figured it was because it's a different shape to the rest. After they finish everything and I've sat up, they tell me they had to start a root canal on that tooth and I no longer had a nerve in that tooth (whether it wasn't there to begin with or they removed it I'm unsure). Eternally grateful they told me after, because my reaction was to draw my knees up to my chest *heh*. They knew I was anxious and accomodated me wonderfully. They said that they would have to have a few more sessions on the root canal tooth. More dentist later *whimper sigh*. They put in a temporary filling for that tooth that I was to treat gently for 24 hrs until it was hard enough to withstand things like chewing and teeth brushing.
The needles made the side of my face all numb, right up to the side of my eye. My right eye felt funny when I blinked. My tongue felt very big for my mouth on that side and I constantly reminded myself to be careful not to bite it (I didn't bite it, go me!). I could still feel the other side of my tongue just fine though, like I had half a tongue. I joked that I could be the Phantom of the Opera or Two-Face from Batman. *heh*
Booked in for the other side of my mouth Monday 13th March. Would've been this coming Monday, but it's a public holiday (mixture of yay but boo cos no getting dentist over and done with)
I woke up in the middle of the night on that Monday night with...toothache. On the right side, the side they worked on. Bad enough for me to reach for the painkillers. Next day I was having aches on and off, Tuesday night wake up in pain again, Wednesday on and off. Called them that afternoon and asked them if it was bad or was normal and would fade away. They said that it may be a high spot on the surface of one of the new fillings, causing my jaw to not sit properly and putting pressure on odd places. Thought that made sense, with it being off and on aching. Made an appointment for 10am Friday, earliest free spot available. I chewed on the that side of my mouth last night though, and my teeth seemed to behave oddly. Iit felt to me like it was in connection with the temp filling. So I'll ask them about that on Friday too. The proper fillings feel fine (they set before you get of the chair, with the aid of this cool light thing that operates on a similar wave to ultra-violet) but the temp filling feels real odd, like a foreign object sitting there. Can't wait for the work on it to be done and a proper filling take it's place.
Regarding price, well thank goodness for credit cards. Not like it was thousands of dollars or anything, but it was more than I get in my bank account after tax each week.
So that's my dentist story. Also, as an interesting aside: They asked me if I ever had my wisdom teeth out to which I replied no. Apparently I don't have any, never grew them. Cool! It's just as well, because my teeth fit in my mouth pretty good and the wisdom teeth would've been crowded. I have this thing about not getting wisdom teeth out (not sure where it originated) so it would've been annoying if I had them *grin*.
( Now for the possible squeamish bits )
a bit of space for the squeamish commenters who don't want to read behind the cut when commenting.
