Have a Dentist Appointment Tomorrow. Nervous!!

Hello everyone,

Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment and I am nervous. It is a routine 6 month checkup/cleaning. I brush twice a day with a electric toothbrush, floss, use a waterpic and mouthwash every day. In spite of this, I fear they will find something like a cavity.

Any suggestions as to how I can cope?

I don't enjoy dental appointments either.

I've made a habit of telling the hygienist and the dentist that I have anxiety. They are able to work with you.
I once found a dentist that had anxiety worse than I did. He was very calming and patient with me because of it.
Also a few of the hygienists I've seen over the years has it too. One admitted she finally had to take paxil to be able to keep working.

Glad it went well TMo. I bet you are glad it is over.

Hugs, Karen...

MainerMikeBrown said...
Since I have a low income, I can afford to see my dentist at a local community health center. They have a sliding scale fee system for people like me who don't make much money per year.

A big way I cope with having to see the dentist every so often is knowing that I can afford to see him, and knowing that I can afford it if my teeth need dental work.

That’s great!! I’m glad you are able to get the help you need. Finances can be a big obstacle for many to get the dental help they need.

It's like I don't like going to the dentist so much, I try to make sure I don't have any cavities.

It's not that I don't like going to the dentist, it's that I can't. In that, with my sensitive ears to noise, the loud steel dentist drill on the hard tooth is only 1-inch from my ear drum, one of the loudest sounds you can imagine.

So, I can't get a cavity or they'll have to pull a tooth out. So I reverse engineer it. That is, I don't get any cavities. Hello!!!!

I haven't had a cavity in 15 or more years. How do I do that? I don't eat any sugar, which started with a 2nd health condition I have or, sensitive ears to noise, in which, sugar doesn't help that, so I stoppled eating sugar for that reason.

So that might be called half the battle. When sugar hurts your health, you'll stop eating sugar, hopefully. I don't eat desserts, sugared-drinks, candy or sweets of any kind. (There's some sugar in canned foods, but i try to rinse it out with water.) I drink a non-sugared drink, it's called water. Whoa, how tough is that?

OK, after my meals, I brush my teeth. Very tough. i also rinse very vigorously, meaning squishing the water between my teeth for 5 or 10 seconds to wash out any small items between my teeth. I then floss, to knock out any food particles between my teeth.

I then rinse with Listerine Total Care which can kill the germs that cause cavities. Brushing or flossing does not kill germs that are on or between you teeth. And that's where cavities form, between two teeth. Listerine Total Care gets between the teeth and kills germs that cause cavities.

Sometimes at night when I'm lying in bed, I'll feel a tingling between two teeth. I know what that is. It's a pre-cavity starting to form. I very often get up right then, floss between the affected area(s), gargle with Listerine Total Care, and the tingling stops. I know what's just happened: the Listerine (and floss) killed the germs that caused the pre-cavity. It's like a miracle.

If an hour or two later or the next day the tingling is still there, I reapply that.

It's that or have my teeth pulled, what do you think I'm going to do?

(Sometimes I don't floss (or use Listerine) after every meal, but I do rinse with water thoroughly for 5 or 10 seconds. Sometimes I even wait for a tingling between teeth, which might not be a good idea.)

The problem with plugs is that, with the noise from the dental drill coming from inside the ear drum, the plugs would increase the sound, for no sound could get out of the ear canal.

The noise cancellation technology head set probably wouldn't work because the sound from the drill would get to the ear drum first, then go to the noise cancellation headset. Too late.

Also the head set would keep the noise inside the ear. Ordinarily that might work, but I don't think it would in this case.

The best combination for me that I've found is, double ear plugs, that look like bubblegum (silicon earplugs, Walgreens, Walmart and net), with non-electric earphones. For plugs with noise cancellation headphones, the electric headphones don't work, because the electronics can't get to the ear drum because of the plugs.