In a former life, I was a dental assistant and a lot of my work/ writing still involves the dental industry. People who have high anxiety about being at the dentist have trouble getting numb. If you can find a way to manage the anxiety, you'll stay more comfortable in the chair. For a lot of people, nitrous oxide (laughing gas) is enough to take the edge off so they can get numb. If this doesn't work for you and you find yourself avoiding having necessary work done because of the pain/ anxiety, consider looking up a dentist who does oral conscious sedation. They basically give you high doses of anti-anxiety meds. You're not put to sleep, but you don't really care what happens around you. The only caveat is that you need to have someone drive you and you'll have to take the day off while the meds wear off. Equally, since you're into meditation, you may be able to chill yourself out enough at the appointment... you could try that as well. The key is getting relaxed- however it may come. If you get that down, the numbness should come as well.
Thanks for all of the good advice. I should have explained better I think. I have VA insurance all they will do for me is to pull teeth. It's usually some 300 pound dentist that looses his grip on the tooth and goes crashing into all of the other teeth with his pliers and his weight and i leave with a lot of collateral damage. LOL
I sure am - I go to a children's dentist because he is kind of gentle and he knows how to talk to and comfort kids but I bet I;m the biggest baby of all his patients. Cheers!
When I was a kid our ancient dentist in a small town never used freezing for his drilling or extractions and I remember he only charged a dollar for an extraction. I practiced being able to 'psyche' away the pain somehow and he thought I was being very brave so I actually came to look forward to dentist visits while my older brother would always be terrified.
Dentist I see now refuses to do any work without freezing so I complain I am not getting my money's worth if I don't feel pain .I just don't like getting my teeth cleaned because it takes so long and it's boring.
No. I have had some pretty painful procedures done, and the shots didn't always cover where they worked, but I just close my eyes and go somewhere in my mind.
Take a day's dose of calcium with each meal for a day or two before the appointment. You can just close your eyes and the dentist will wake you when he's done.
im not afraid of them, just disgusted when they wont do their jobs, i had a gum infection and was on two rounds of antibiotics, i still couldnt get rid of it, and everytime i was supposed to get a cleaning theyd cancel on me, after the 2nd time i just quit going, i was still having problems with pain from it etc.,, a couple of months later i decided to try some garlic and thats been making it heal up, if i ever go to the dentist again it wont be there
I can't lie. I dread them. I am one of these people that don't get adequately numb either. The worst is having a dentist tell you that you shouldn't be feeling pain. "Yeh...I make this up dude to just annoy you."
I take anti anxiety meds before going and I also take over the counter pain meds in hopes it helps.
I'm certain that if I ever require a root canal, I will just have the bleeping tooth pulled. I can't envision getting through that.
I probably also need to shop for a dentist that won't dismiss my complaint of pain.
Interestingly enough, the few oral surgeons I ever dealt with were sweethearts and had no problem getting me numb and explaining everything they were doing. If they could drill, I would be going to them for everything.
Listen up. I had my eyes operated on while I was awake. They put needles the length of my eyeball into my eye while I got to watch as they stabbed my eye.
It took an hour and the anesthetic wore off. It hurt like HELL.
After that? You could pull every tooth out of my head with no anesthetic an I could handle it.
Hi Pea. Believe it. I always was terrified of anything to do with an eye operation and I wound up having 3. The only operations I ever had to endure.
Dentists these days have a lot of good anasthetics so don't worry if your number comes up and you are due for a visit. It is very important to take good care of your teeth.
Oh, I do. I go every six months for a cleaning and endure their procedures. I just had a crown done a few months back. No fun. I say I would have a tooth pulled if was something way in the back, but my teeth are something I never want to lose.
i'm more afraid of dentists than i am of ducks . dentists have bigger bills . :-0
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at October 22, 2016 9:52 PM MDT
Baba 