Dental Phobia
Writing here has ground to a halt as I deal with the after-effects of two crown preps.
Alas, I’m not blessed with healthy teeth. And to make matters worse, I’m not very diligent about ensuring their health. Yes, I have a phobia against dentists.
I trace this back to when I was nearing my teenage years and preparing for braces. The orthodontist declared that my mouth was too small and that pulling teeth would enable straight teeth to be possible. So I had four baby teeth and four permanent teeth pulled within a two-week timeframe. Unfortunately, that left lasting mental scars.
So while I’m well aware of the need to see a dentist and to take care of what I have, I often succumb to irrational fears left from my childhood. However, since I have a wife now to keep me honest, I have now returned to the dentist.
The good news is that I only required one filling and one new crown for a cracked tooth. The other crown was an existing one which needed to be replaced. Unfortunately, the existing crown was on my lower right and apparently I have difficulty getting numb in that area. I think I had a total of four shots to try to get that area numb. But even after four shots, I still was not completely numb. As they drilled, I winced. And upon seeing this, they stopped. I told them that I was on the "edge of pain". But the next level of anesthesia involved a hammer, so I let them press on with the understanding that the pain would get no worse.
If that weren’t enough, I’m on Day 8 since the visit and still feeling pain. So I called to see if this is normal. They think its still a result of the trauma and the many shots. But this bit of pain is requiring daily medication! So we’ll see how this goes.
But I have to say that its going to take some real maturity on my part to go to the dentist again. I do not suffer this kind of pain well, unfortunately. Does anyone else face these kind of demons?
For what its worth to all you who have not seen me, I do have healthy straight teeth…but there are a few crowns involved to make that the case.