#dentophobia

[doctortv]

drawing podcast characters intimidates me.. but no one can stop me from turning them into furries 😈

[id: kevin from welcome to night vale drawn as an anthropomorphic red fox. he is wearing a dark purple vest over a yellow shirt, both of which are stained with blood, and a tie that looks like a centipede. he has an ear ring attached to a hook pulling back the end of his mouth, showing off all of his teeth. he's seen from the shoulders up in front of a black background with a classic yellow smiley face to the left of him. end id]

[dekarios]

my tooth just broke in half

[yandeere2002]

TW: TEETH; DENTOPHOBIA

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[ofdinosanddais1]

The thing that sucks a lot about not getting diagnosed with a secere gastrointestinal disease is that I'm scared of going to the dentist because, no matter what I did before cutting out gluten, my teeth are shit because of the GERD that came as a result of celiac disease. I'm hoping to find a dentist covered by my insurance that understands GERD and doesn't shame me for my teeth being bad. I haven't been able to keep up with brushing my teeth because of a combination of sensory issues from the texture of toothpaste and how attempting to brush my teeth would result in acid reflux. I finallh have a toothpaste tab that doesn't have toothpaste texture and it is a huge relief from my past attempts of keeping my teeth clean. I don't know if it's going to be enough though after 22 years of acid dissolving my teeth. I'm honestly surprised none of them have fallen out yet.

I'm gonna have to see a dentist eventually and I'll look up which ones are knowledgeable about severe GERD especially since triggering it will mean it's hard to swallow food. But I think after knowing WHY it made my teeth so bad, it'll be a little easier to find a nice dentist. Unfortunately my insurance won't cover sedation so that sucks. I'll probably watch x-men evolution during the sessions to help cope.

[beauty-grace-outer-space]

Long embarrassing vent/rant beneath the cut.

Hi, I have OCD (as we know). 

I also have a pretty intense phobia of something being wrong with my teeth. Not the dentist. Not dental work. Something being wrong with my teeth.

Two weeks ago ish I went to the dentist for my regular six month cleaning. They updated my x-rays, said everything looked great, got to cleaning. Yay. 

98% of the way through the cleaning, the hygienist said, “Mm, this spot is tricky” and told me my back molars are misaligned, which. Ok, panic number one cuz I had five years of work done to make my teeth straight and I wear my retainer religiously so what do you mean my molars are misaligned? And then he tells me they always have been. 

So I’m already like, “Uhhh what the hell?” because I never knew this and why wasn’t that fixed with my braces and oh my god have my teeth shifted, my top wisdom teeth never came in, maybe that’s what’s happening? But no that would have shown up on x-rays, and my nightguard/retainer is molded to the alignment of my teeth and it fits perfectly still, so there’s no way my teeth have moved--

And then the dentist comes in to check things out, and he kind of hones in on the same spot, right between my back molars. He asks for more x-rays of that spot. They did six x-rays total before something showed up. And with no preamble at all they said, “Ok we’ll just do a filling at it will be fine.”

And I started shaking. And crying. Because you’ll do what? I’ve never had that done before what does that mean what did you find on my x-rays? How did I fuck it up now? 

And they just... finish up the cleaning and tell me to go home.

As we’re walking out, I am like, “Wait you said... you said you have to do a filling, do you not?”

And the hygienist says, “Oh, no we do. But that will have to be on a different day, we don’t have the time today.”

He told me there’s the “faintest hint of shadow” between the two teeth and they want to do a filling before it gets worse. But to get to the spot between the teeth, they have to go through the top of the tooth. They’ll have to schedule an appointment, numb me, etc. etc. 

And I just... started crying and asked, “But... ok but what does that mean though? Like... what was on my x-rays?” 

And he looked very shocked and sympathetic and said, “Oh. You’ve never had this done before have you?”

And I just kept crying and shook my head.

And I just started panicking. I basically sobbed my way through scheduling, and the receptionist recommended that I do nitrous oxide at my appointment since I’ve “clearly got some dental anxiety”. 

I wait two weeks. I panic my way through each day, scared to eat or drink anything but water because I fucked up my teeth and I’m going to make them worse. I spent $200+ on dental care stuff/restocks (most of the things I already had but I bought more). 

So I’m crying and stumbling through an explanation that I don’t have dental anxiety, I am not worried at all about whatever they have to do to keep my teeth healthy, but in my head I’ve got a running mantra now of, “You fucking failure. You fucked up your teeth. It’s so fucking easy and somehow, after thirty years, you slipped up and fucked them up now and you’re a failure”. 

Then I remember that nitrous oxide doesn’t work on me. They tried to use it when they removed my bottom wisdom teeth because I was scared of the IV for the anesthesia to put me under for the procedure. They upped it until they couldn’t anymore, and I just kept getting more and more panicked until I passed out, still sobbing. And then I woke up, still sobbing.

So she tells me to contact them later to talk to someone about conscious sedation. 

So I schedule. I call. I discuss conscious sedation. It would cost 5x as much that way, but I can’t even make it through the phone call without a panic attack, so I pretty much have to. I reschedule it since I will be basically unable to do anything for 24 hours afterward. 

I sob my way to the appointment. I start shaking as soon as I sit down. Thankfully the drugs kicked in pretty quickly and I got very tired and calm. But the hygienist attendant who was monitoring my vitals asked why I needed the drugs/what I was nervous about, and I still cried even drugged out of my mind. 

They do the thing. I go home. I sleep it off. I wake up.

It feels wrong. It felt like someone slapped wall plaster over and between my teeth, let it leak out the sides, and left it there to dry. It’s rough and sharp and I can’t stop touching it with my tongue, and every time I tough it my brain goes, “You fucking failure” and I have an anxiety attack. 

By this point, I was so upset and embarrassed and anxious I basically just wept in the chair. Full body, heaving, ugly sobbing. The dentist was really nice. He kept asking how he could help me, and I just kept bawling that I’m crazy and I know I’m crazy but I can’t turn my brain off and every time I touch it and it feels wrong it sets off the mental loop again and I can’t do it anymore. 

It was done on a Friday. I had to wait until Monday to go in to have it smoothed/polished. They took off a lot. Apparently they left most of the bonding material just... on my tooth. Some material had gotten stuck to a spot of my tooth they hadn’t even worked on, and having that taken off helped. They also made it a lot lower on the top of the tooth. Just getting that off helped a lot, but it still didn’t feel right. I was still scared to eat or drink anything and it still felt wrong. 

So I went in again on Tuesday. They had the dentist come in this time to adjust it, and it was way better... but after I left I felt pressure between those teeth (probably from sanded off material shifting or something I don’t know) and had a full blown, hyperventilating panic attack. I went back to the office, they took my back again. 

They spent close to an hour polishing and smoothing it down. It wound up being 98% of the way to perfect, but there’s still one spot that’s sharp and bothersome and I can’t help but touch it constantly. And then the mental loop starts up again.

I’m going back in again today to have it hopefully polished again, and I am so desperately hopeful that once that last pointy spot is taken care of maybe my brain will relax for a few minutes and let me rest. 

I haven’t been able to sleep without a sleep aid in close to a week. I have 2-5 anxiety attacks and usually 1 panic attack every day. I’m still scared to eat or drink anything. I can’t eat or drink anything but water unless I have xylitol gum, floss, and a toothbrush with me so I can immediately go clean my teeth. But I also know that brushing your teeth too often is bad for them, so I’ve been limiting how much I eat and when so that I don’t overbrush. 

And at this point I’m so embarrassed and ashamed and upset for being so needy about it all that I never want to go to the dentist again, which would of course make things worse in the long run, which also makes me anxious. 

Even just typing this out, I’m like “Great. Now everyone is going to know I’m a failure who fucked up my teeth.” Which makes no sense. I know (logically) that it’s damn near biologically impossible to make it through life without thinning enamel or the occasional cavity. I know that there are genetic factors, hormone changes, aging, and many other influences beyond our control that can affect our teeth. And I don’t judge anyone for their teeth ever. Because I know all of this. 

I’m so tired. I’m so sad. I’m so angry at myself. My head hurts. My jaw hurts. My tongue hurts. 

This is a totally normal, standard procedure to help keep teeth healthy in a mostly preventative way, and the fact that I made it almost 31 years without having a single one is nothing short of a miracle. 

But my brain is hardwired for illogical thinking patterns and compulsions, and I can’t stop. 

And I’m sitting here anxious and hungry and upset because my appointment isn’t for another hour and fifteen minutes and I don’t want to have to brush my teeth twice before noon because then I will be anxious about brushing them after I eat lunch since I already “overbrushed” this morning. 

And my new fear is that I’m asking them to polish this thing down so much that they’ve started drilling at my actual tooth (since the filling itself is so, so small) and I’m actually causing more damage by trying to be comfortable.

It’s like I just can’t win. And I feel completely insane. 

[irpieday]

The internet was down, so today's scare bears are Ailurophobia 🐻🐈 and Dentophobia 🐻🦷

[dark--and-witchy]

Went to the dentist for the first time in like 5 years and dude my gums feel so much better

[thetheatrelady]

I have to go to the dentist today and I am beyond anxious and nervous, so any good vibes, thoughts, distractions would be greatly appreciated

[foxboidrew]

[Log #34]

[The subject we have been calling "Lunar" seems to panic when we mention dental checkups. This has shown to be a quite curious case out of the four.

Today, we had to force the subject into the dental procedure despite his screaming, fighting, and crying. "Lunar" calmed down after a quick injection of strong sedatives.

However, this did not stop him from trying to move his head in this dazed state. Dr. REDACTED was required to hold the subject's head as Nurse REDACTED was required to force his mouth open.

I accidentally cut too deep upon multiple parts of the gums, and caused a pool of blood to pour from the subject's mouth. Putting the subject under anesthesia might be our only option to get him to stop having involuntary ticks.]

[simeike]

Anyone here with dentophobia that can shoot me some tips on how i will survive Tuesday?

[theygender]

God I'm just thinking about how many times I was failed in regards to my dental health and how many of my dental problems could have been avoided. My pediatrician told my mom that it wasn't necessary to get my tongue tie fixed as a baby bc it wouldn't prevent me from nursing or speaking, but leaving my tongue tie caused me to develop an open bite and a cross bite which is gonna take tongue tie surgery and bone surgery to fully fix. I had to get two of my permanent premolars pulled as a kid because they were preventing my canines from growing in, but the oral surgeon fucked up the instructions from my orthodontist and only pulled one side and no one would listen to me when I said he was wrong during the consult bc I was a kid so I had to get the procedure done twice. My middle school orthodontist didn't give me an expander like all my friends had which at the time I thought was great but now it turns out that that actually IS something I needed done and since the roof of my mouth has fused now I'm going to have to get the bone surgically broken. That same orthodontist gave me a shitty prototype retainer that didn't work and looked ridiculous so I couldn't wear it and my teeth went back to how they were before which means I need adult braces. When I got my wisdom teeth pulled as an adult I told them three separate times that I was a medical marijuana patient and they said they would make sure to take that into account, but they didn't give me enough anaesthetic so I partially woke up during surgery and they also prescribed me medication that would have killed me if I had taken it at the same time as my weed without any warning—the only reason I found out before it was too late is bc I decided to google it myself. I also got dry socket and an infection after that procedure, and my dentist told me I could come see them for some numbing gel and antibiotics but the oral surgeon convinced me to come back to their office instead... where they just looked back there with a little mirror and sent me home with only a cleaning syringe. So to recap, I've already had braces and three separate oral surgeries, and it's gonna take another round of braces and three more rounds of oral surgery to fix the shit that was fucked up the first time. The fact that I don't have an active fear of the dentist at this point is a miracle, but at least my new orthodontist seems to really know what she's doing. But I'm still gonna owe $6000 for my braces after insurance and I don't even know how much any of the surgeries are gonna cost yet... #winning

[kissmel0ser]

Matthew 13:49-50

[zennialemo]

I'm getting a root canal tomorrow. One of two needed. Did I mention I have dentophobia? 🥲

[bittersweetblasphemy]

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bRO can my body fucking chill for one goddamn minute???

fucking christ im a pretty damn high functioning person when it comes to my PTSD and anxiety. but holy fuck why does making a dentist appointment FOR SOMEONE ELSE have me fucking dry heaving every time i try to pick up the damn phone and make the call???

stop?????

[furyohin4urr20]

i'll never forget the time I had a graphic dream of my teeth falling out in the middle of a convenience store in Serbia to which I woke up in a cold sweat realizing that Strawberry Shortcake 2003 was the pinnacle of y2k fashion

[aligndentalcare]

10 Strategies for Overcoming Dental Anxiety

Dental anxiety, also known as dentophobia. It begins by defining dental anxiety and highlighting its symptoms, such as increased heart rate, sweating, and low blood pressure. The causes of dental anxiety are explained, including fear of pain, past negative experiences, and other related factors.

Practical tips and strategies to overcome dental anxiety:

Choose a dentist who specializes in treating anxious patients and has a positive reputation.

Openly communicate your anxiety with your dentist or seek support from friends, family, or counseling.

Utilize distraction techniques like watching TV, listening to music, or engaging in conversations during your appointment.

Practice deep breathing exercises to stay calm and relaxed.

Consider Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to address negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones.

Inquire about sedative options to help you relax during dental procedures.

Bring a supportive friend or family member to accompany you during your appointment.

Avoid consuming caffeine and sugary foods before your dental visit, as they can increase anxiety.

Schedule appointments at non-frantic times to reduce stress.

Take breaks during procedures to give yourself time to relax.

To know more elaborately, visit align dental clinic’s website which is located in Sri lanka.

To know more, visit: https://www.aligndentalcare.lk/10-tips-to-get-rid-of-dental-anxiety/

Align dental care

Website: https://www.aligndentalcare.lk/

Address: No.34C, Saranankara Road, Dehiwala. Sri Lanka - 10350

Call: 0777242476