Not much to add 'cept plese don’t kick your own ass over this. As you can see from the responses, it’s not uncommon and you’re certainly not the first patient your dentist has seen with this particular issue. I second asking if there’s a smaller apparatus they can use. If not, medicate yourself beforehand. Maybe listen to your ipod while it’s happening? Think of kittehs? Baseball? Kittehs playing baseball?
Good luck and don’t put it off. The price of not maintaining your dental health is waaaaaaaay worse than this procedure.
That’s the epinephrine they mix in with the novocaine. Next time, ask for novocaine withOUT epi. No more heart racing, panic attacks, or crying.
I started protesting about the heart racing thing at the dentist once and next time I went in, the hygenist said, “Well, we’ll just give you the kind without epi.” For fuck’s sake, woman, why doesn’t anyone ever offer that option? Why do they even mix in the epi when so many people complain about the effects of novocaine? Gah!
Anyway, to the OP, I was thinking of suggesting it was the suddenness with the lack of communication that triggered the panic attack (maybe too strong a phrase). I am the kind of person who needs to know what the plan is and if I can’t know, then I need to know when I’m going to know what the plan is. This especially applies to medical personnel who are going to do something to my body. It’s like a gyno who jams in a speculum without ever telling you what they’re doing. It’s a bit of a :eek: shock.
So I wonder if the dentist just walked in and started trying to cram something into your mouth without ever saying, “This is the mold I’m going to try and you’ll have this in your mouth for 45 minutes and we’ll do what we can to make you comfortable… yadda yadda.” Docs and the like often forget to put things into context, forgetting that while they do this every day, we do not. It’s new to me. Explain before you touch me, please.
And that goes triple for the stupid intake nurse at the hospital where I had a minor outpatient surgery. Bitch, I’ve never been in a hospital as a patient before in my life, how the fuck was I supposed to know [insert a whole list of shit she never bothered to mention that could have made me much more comfortable and far less anxious].
Dentists, techs, and docs: Please don’t forget to A) tell people your name. Do you have any idea how many medical people have touched me in very intimate ways, yet never once told me their names? and B) explain to people what you’re going to do to them before you do it.
Maybe your dentist did this, but that’s what would trigger me: the shock of no warning and no context and no idea what to expect.
This is absolutely correct! It was the assistant who approached me with the spatula, moving it toward my mouth. I stopped him and said, “Exactly what are we going to do today?” I mean, geez, like you said, they do this every day. My last crown was 20+ years ago.
I want everything explained to me. God knows, I’m paying a freakin’ fortune for this abuse!
I do appreciate the replies very much. I need to get this done, but I’ll take a xannie before I go next time. I didn’t take one today, because a) I wasn’t expecting a steel-toed boot to be shoved in my mouth, and b) I’m already taking cold medicine and didn’t want to mix.
My dentist who did the crown that fell out (after 20+ years… I wore a hole in it, and I believe that weakened the cement) was THE most gentle man. It was like going to Fred Rogers to have your teeth worked on. Alas, he’s working on heavenly crowns now…
I find when I’m experiencing fear or anxiety in a medical situation, it’s usually because the other person is so ground down in their routine that they have forgotten to communicate. While I highly recommend Better Living Through Chemistry™ (i.e., taking a Xanax before you go next time), I would also tell them, “I really need you to explain everything you’re going to do today before you do it. And, by the way. What’s your name?”
I’m seriously considering not allowing any medical people to touch me in any way whatsoever unless they at least give me their goddamn name.
I mean, seriously, is basic manners just too much to ask?
I had an impression done last year the same way, for a biteguard. the stuff my dentist used was some “alginate” compound that cured within a couple of minutes. the strange thing about it was that it got cold as it cured.
I had trouble as well when I had mine done and there were a couple of molds they had to do and that is the one that tasted bad felt bad and smelled horrible. But knowing I hate doctors/dentists and have I anxiety I took something before the appointment. I did get ride there so that did help. But there are dentist that do crowns with a laser no molds at all. I bet you could find one near you. Just point and shoot. But I have to go where my insurance is taken so molds it is!!!
Ugh. They did that to me once, and they overfilled the tray with the clay stuff, and it went down my throat and I actually did throw up. God, how I hate dentists.
Gack! I hate those things too. The last time I had one the hygienist told me to breath through my mouth. It really helped to calm the gag reflex. It helps if you are sitting up and not reclining during this process.
shudder No one likes impressions, they blow goats for quarters. I’ll echo everyone else and tell you not to beat yourself up.
I just had my first filling a couple of weeks ago. I was really worried about the shots in the mouth, I’d only had one before and it was horrible. I just focused on my breathing, counted, and reminded myself that it would be over soon.
My eyes watered and I think there was an undignified whimper but it all worked out fine. The corny tensing/releasing and counting/breathing tricks really are effective.
Well, at least you can take some satisfaction that their overzealousness was punished by having to clean up your barf :D.
My son got queasy after a fluoride treatment. The bathroom was occupied, the receptionist didn’t offer him a trash can… so they had a mess to clean up. I felt sort of bad for them when I heard about this (I wasn’t there at the time)… but oh well, what can you do.
Remember it too. So, it’s not some sort of new procedure, as the OP apparently thought. However, I don’t remember the thingy covering the palate, only the teeth.
I’m in the middle of getting my 2nd crown done since December. They did two molds BOTH times, one smaller mold that seemed like just a couple teeth - I think that was for the temporary one made in-office, and the second “spatula” one to go to the lab.
The “spatula” mold was tons of fun the first time. I was fine with it, but as the dentist pushed it down with both thumbs (he was behind me so I couldn’t see him, so as to get a thumb on each side I suppose) I had a momentary thought of me biting down and severing both of his thumbs. I watch a lot of campy horror movies.
It gave me a giggle fit. When I get the giggles under normal circumstances, it’s hard for me to stop. This was impossible. If I had been able to talk, and tell him what had gone through my head, I probably could have stopped, but I couldn’t do that. So I giggled, and giggled, and started to just laugh. I have one of those laughs that when I go all-out it gets other people going. So the assistants and hygienists in adjoining areas all started to giggle, too. I could tell he was a little dismayed. He said “we have to do this for four minutes,” and I guffawed. I could tell he meant that we would have to do the whole thing over again if my movement made the mold shift. I laughed for the entire four minutes. It was FOREVER. Thank Og the mold came out OK.
So we had to do the whole thing over again last week! I didn’t laugh that time, I’m happy to report. It would have just been torture if I had started all that up again. He made a joke about it before we started, I think that helped and no hard feelings about my laughing at the thought of biting both his thumbs off!
So, OP, maybe it can work like giving a speech and imagining the audience in their underwear?
I have a phobia of dentists to begin with, to where I’m anxious even for a routine check up. Once the poking around begins and the drill starts to whine, even if I’m numbed it’s really stressful. When I got my first crown fitted, I was ready to jump out of the chair and run out of the office. I had to get the crown replaced 5 years later, and that wasn’t a picnic either.
I won’t go over too many incidents, but I sure have had a string of bad dental experiences.
I told my dentist I sometimes have reactions to Novocaine (I did not know about the epi) and during a recent extraction was tripping on the stuff.
Cripes I hate that. Glad to know what it is called so I can tell them exactly what I do not want in the injection.
My orthodontist (many years ago) did not trim off the wires and threatened to send me home that way if I did not cooperate better. Screw him, (he was an a-hole) and I got up to leave.
I called his bluff, he trimmed the wires immediately. I suspect he did not need a walking advertisement for his chamber of horrors.
A sadistic dentist (really, I am not making this up) deliberately advertised for anxious patients so that he could torture them I only went to him twice. (first occurence I chalked up to him having a bad day, second time I perceived his joy at my pain and discomfort).
I frelling HATE dentists.
Epinephrine is a vasoconstrictor, and local reduced blood flow helps the Novocaine stay in the place where it was injected, rather than traveling all over the body. Compared to straight Novocaine, you can give someone more Novocaine + epinephrine before you start worrying about approaching toxic doses, which I don’t think is generally an issue at dentist’s offices, unless you are getting all of your teeth sewn back in, but still - there you have it.
How about having Mr. Dentist loan you a torture device for you to play with at home? Gently slide it in yourself, pop it right back out, then leave it in a bit longer…
Keep practicing until it’s not so scary anymore.
Then the day of, you pop it in yourself. How about that?
I had a breast biopsy last fall (outpatient surgery) and they had to run a wire into my boob (to find the tag they’d left in from a previous needle-guided biopsy) while it was smashed flat in a mammogram machine. Sadistic fuckers. They shot my boob full of Novocaine after it was wrangled into the mammo, but either they didn’t allow the Novocaine enough time to work or they didn’t give me enough. I made a huge point of making sure my chart said “NO EPI” (unless I’m dying, in which case, shoot me up). I wonder if the epi-free injection wasn’t as effective because of the location and the reason you stated. Either way, it hurt like hell. FTR, the biopsy turned out benign and the surgery was successful and my boob is now fine and just slightly worse for the wear.
I would also add that I would take boob pain over dental pain any day of the week, hands down, no debate. When your mouth hurts, nothing else matters.
That is a good idea, but as someone said, I’m guessing they won’t loan it out. However, I have a serving spoon that is just about the same shape and size and I think I’ll practice holding it in my mouth for five minutes at a time.
I had one dentist who dropped the goddamned crown, which tumbled to the back of my throat. So I’m desperately trying to stifle both the swallow and gag reflex, while he’s going “hum-de-dum” and looking for some tool to reach in and retrieve the thing.
