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I'm here to talk dentists! And to confess I'm a quivering jelly when it comes to visiting one. Several really bad experiences have all left their mark. The low lights - wisdom teeth (all out before I turned eighteen), miscellaneous extractions in the days when that was the preferred option to straighten teeth and one very unpleasant experience at a dental school with a needle when I was 5 years old. I've fainted in the dentist chair on two occasions.
Needless to say, visiting the dentist hasn't featured high on my list of fun things to do. But a few years ago, I realised I couldn't put of going any longer so I asked around and found my new tooth expert.
I still don't like going to see him but I do like his approach to dental care.My latest visit was to his hygienist! She is a Tartar Titan! All alien mouth forms will be found and ruthlessly eliminated!
I spent the morning before the visit, flossing and brushing and NOT eating chocolate! I'm actually pretty good with my tooth care but there's something about knowing the enamel will be examined under the microscope that makes me want to polish each millimetre meticulously.
I learned that I have an overbite, retrograde lower incisors, and that she could tell I was right handed because I don't do quite as well at cleaning the back molars on the upper left-hand side. Have to work on that!
She discovered an ultra-sensitive spot on one of my molars and had to scrape me off the ceiling back into the chair. That spot was 'painted' with a super-fluoride treatment which tasted suspiciously banana-ry.
Anyway, I'm thrilled to say that all is going well with my teeth and I'm doing a pretty good job of maintaining them. My reward was a 'show bag' containing tooth-related goodies! a tooth brush, a small tube of toothpaste and the cutest little floss!How about you? Any scary dental stories? Does the thought of a visit to the dentist have your knees quaking?
Oh, Sharon, my sympathies. With so many of us not liking going to the dentist, why would anyone train to be one?
ReplyDeleteMy worst experience was having a root canal done by a brand new, just off the block, dentist. She took four hours on Saturday and five more on Sunday to drill it all out - apparently I had two roots. I don't ever remember spending four hours let alone nine in the chair before and I'm sure it's not something I'd forget. Needless to say, I was so not impressed and never went back to her again.
Ugh, Sue! My sympathies right back to YOU! Nine hours on the one tooth would have to be some sort of record, wouldn't it - and not in a good way!
DeleteI think that would be a very good reason to move on to a new dentist. I'll add root canals to my list of undesirable procedures!
Ugh, the dentist. Can relate to your fear, Sharon, but it sounds as if you've found a fab dentist.
ReplyDeleteAs for scary dentist stories… When I was 7 I had a filling without an anaesthetic. It's not an experience I'd ever like to repeat. I also had a couple of my wisdom teeth removed in the chair and one of them was growing sideways. It had to be sectioned and it took an hour. When the dentist brightly said, "Just one to go," I tried to get out of the chair. Thankfully, that one took next to no time at all. But I'll never forget that they made me wear safety glasses. Shudder.
Eek on your scary dentist stories, Michelle! Especially those wisdom teeth! You have to wonder why nature gave them to us - they seem to cause nothing but trouble. Commiserations on your dentist's insensitive, "Just one to go" - easy for him to say!
ReplyDeleteWell done on surviving the dentist, Sharon. We are very boring dentist people. My kids love the dentist. I don't mind it too much. And we have a great dentist. But, make me go and have an injection and it would be a very different story! Let's just say hysterical doesn't really come close to describing my reaction!
ReplyDeleteJen, I'm so impressed that your kids love the dentist! Perplexed... but impressed! LOL It's fab that you've got a great dentist!
DeleteAh, injections! Now there's a phobia for another day! ;)
Sharon
ReplyDeleteI feel you pain I had many bad experiences with dentist when I was a child and going to one takes a lot of effort from me I don't go nearly as much as I should but a couple of years ago I did and had a lot of work done caps etc and I do clean them but I still haven't been back for the check up I should have gone to plicking up the courage to make an appointment.
Have Fun
Helen
Oh, Helen, same here with the not going as often as I should to attend to things dental! In fact, the poor receptionist has been chasing me for ages about making an appointment with the hygienist! I've had so many "good" excuses to avoid or change appointments.
DeleteGood luck with getting up the courage to make your appointment!
Sharon, it sounds as though your dentist and my dentist may be related. Or perhaps that is just the "new" dentist -- the one who is loved by children! -- unlike the sadists of our youth. On that note, I don't have a particular horror story but I do have a deep-seated terror of the dentist chair which was forged in those childhood visits. I have unbalanced teeth due to random extractions to make room because of overcrowding. I have many fillings. Many visits, many nightmares.
ReplyDeleteMy lovely (female) dentist does her best to calm and feed me confidence. We often talk books and my writing -- the day she found out I was an author, she brought in all her staff to meet me! -- but I'm sure she sees the terror in my eyes.
The memories run deep into the dentine, don't they, Bron! Actually, I think our "old" dentists must definitely have been related! perfect line - many visits, many nightmares!
DeleteGlad you've got a lovely dentist now too - still had to shake the quivers though.
:)
I do have some horror stories, including one similar to Michelle's - wisdom teeth extraction during which the dentist said that it should have been done in hospital and he wished he'd never started.
ReplyDeleteToday's dentists are must gentler, though, in my experience, and much more understanding.
Oh, Claire, that is a line soooo NOT designed to inspire you with confidence in the person performing the extraction! And the rotten thing is, there you are, completely at the mercy of this person, stuck in the chair with goodness only knows what instruments crammed in your mouth. Sheesh! I want to be able to reach back in time for you and give that dentist a piece of my mind!
DeleteHi Sharon, you have my deepest empathy over dental visits. My primary school was a feeder for the dental nurse training school in town. They used to load us up by the bus load and truck us in for trainee dental nurses to practice on us. Needless to say the sound of a dental drill still has the power to reduce me to a quivering wreck. I still remember them having to drag me off the bus one day and I was so hysterical I had to stay in the waiting room by myself while everyone else had treatment. Ugh! No little gum swab butterfly for me that day (or pretty much any other day, from memory!)
ReplyDeleteARGH! Those scary trainee dental people! Oh, Yvonne, you poor thing! Seriously, who could think that a little gum swab butterfly would make up for that sort of trauma!
DeleteActually, my bad experience with a needle was with a trainee dentist in Fiji - my mum tells me he'd stuck the needle right through until the liquid was squrting out the side of my jaw! ARGH!
Sharon, I have some horror stories - a bit like Claire and Michelle's.
ReplyDeleteThere was the molar being taken out by sawing down through the middle and halfway through the procedure, there was no pain relief. Dentist said there was infection so the anesthetic only worked in the first bit and couldn't work where the infection was, but it was too late to stop. Also, he'd realised the 'sawing through the middle' technique wasn't the one he should have used, but again, too late...
My current dentist is good - I trust her and she accepts that I'm probably overly nervous. :)
ARGH! Rachel! Good grief, who wants to hear the "wrong technique" has been used when you're halfway through a procedure! Outrageous!
DeleteYay, for your current good dentist! I'm so glad you found her!
Not going to look and can't bear to even think about the dentist. I go every 6 months and almost need tranquilizers every time. I hate them. Too much barbaric work done in my youth that makes me anxious now.Worst thing? The dentist taking 45 minutes to take a tooth out, at one point he had his foot on my shoulder so he could yank harder….
ReplyDeleteI think the anesthetic is the worse pain so now I don't have one for a filling. It's easier without it, no needles, no numbness or dribbling.
My current dentist is lovely, very empathetic and calming- but I'm always glad to leave :-).
Louisa, I can imagine you reading this blog with your fingers in your ears as you go "la la la"! LOL
DeleteEEEEEK on the dentist putting his foot on your shoulder to get better leverage on a tooth! THAT belongs in a cartoon about a dentist NOT in a real life situation!
And YAY for you finding a good current-day dentist! I think we're breathing a big sigh of relief, aren't we!
It's normal if you find it hard to trust dentist, knowing you’ve had lots of terrible experiences when you were just a kid. With proper research and background checking, it’ll be easier to analyze if a dentist offers legit services or not. I can only imagine how tiring it must have been to spend the whole morning flossing and brushing, but it’s all worth it. Congratulations for having a healthy teeth, Sharon! :)
ReplyDeleteStephen Malfair
Hey Stephen, you're right about flossing and brushing being worth it. I was pretty pleased with what the hygienist said on my latest visit.
DeleteIt's been great to read everyone's comments and see that their dental experiences so much better nowadays. I think that the advances in dental techniques etc have made things much more pleasant for patients - and probably for the dentists, too!
Thanks for popping in to comment.
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ReplyDeleteGoing to the dentist can be really scary. However, we have no choice but go because we need them to take care of our oral health, especially with regards to extracting your fully-blown wisdom teeth. Awww, the surgery can be horrifying, but you can do it.
ReplyDeleteGerald Regni
Tartar titan. I love it. Now only if dentists are as loved as the hygienists, everyone will have better teeth! So sorry about your bad experiences with dentists. The extractions must have been scary and most probably unwarranted. However, dental care is better nowadays, which means there shouldn't be as daunting as before.
ReplyDeleteJason Dew @ GRMetroDental.com