Need to go to dentist and GAD is in overdrive

[jadedreams]

Hey guys, I need to go to the dentist for a couple fillings and to be honest I'm freaking out. I actually went last week to get a temporary filling redone on a root canal. I was freaking out at the time but the dentist was really nice and gentle about it, they didn't even charge me anything to refix it. He did mention I was going to need another couple fillings and soon.

Of course today a tooth started hurting that needs a filling and now I'm in panic mode. First of all I have a big anxiety about dentists anyway due to a bad experience years back where one didn't numb me properly. The other thing is financially I can't afford to go at the moment. I have had one thing after the other happen in the past month, my washer and dryer both went out and I had to find another pair. So that was an unexpected expense.

It just seems like I keep getting hit with one thing after another while my anxiety is already high and I'm struggling to cope. I just want to get better and it feels like the world is against me.

Any advice, please?

[ray.olsen]

Hello jade

Dental anxiety is fairly common. I actually have met a lot of people suffering from this condition. I'm sorry to hear about your traumatic experience. Clearly it is what triggered your anxiety. I know you're scared but dental care is very important and you must somehow find the courage to go. What you can do is you can ask the dentist if he can use general anesthesia and put you to sleep while he perform the filling so you wouldn't be bothered.

General anesthesia would be a lot more expensive and you've mentioned that you're currently on a financial crisis. However like what I said dental care is very important so if you can find a way to deal with the finances, it would be better. Borrow some money or find an extra job for an extra income. It's better to take care of your mouth now to prevent furhtr damage

[Mark501]

There's nothing quite like a trip to the dentist to help GAD on its way.

The worst part about going to the dentist, I find, is the check - ups. Primarily because I dread what they're going to find. It's normally good news thankfully, but even if they're asking me to come back to get a filling replaced or something, I'm not too bad. It's the anticipation of those check ups that normally give me a good excuse to take a valium.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yeah, I had to go for a broken tooth right at the height of my relapse when I had just got past the side effects of the med I went on. I managed to do the 2 appointments for checks but the 3rd for the extraction had me up all night and I just got worse & worse. I backed out.

I rebooked it for a couple of weeks away though and just stuck the pain out. When the time came I managed to at least get a bit more sleep so I went for it. It was hard but it wasn't as hard as I expected. I had used some intense focussing distraction techniques to get me through a few things so did it with the light on the ceiling. I always felt the nausea kick in when the chair was lowered so battled through that with this light. I just kept staring at it as hard as I could whilst having more than one injection as it wasn't doing enough. It was a difficult extraction because the tooth was going anyway and it crumbled leaving very little above the gum line. He had to switch to the other side more than once to lever it out...it was like someone undoing a nut that was threaded :D

It left me feeling a bit weird the rest of the day and on edge but I got through it and a couple of days later was much better.

I can promise you I was really ill back then and this was major for me. So, I believe in you that you can do it.

[jadedreams]

Thanks guys for all the reassurance, I've got an appointment in a couple weeks. Had to have time to gather the money after all the other stuff that has broken lately. Luckly the pain has went down some in the meantime. I'm going to trust that I can do it.

I really appreciate everyone taking time to answer me.