I’ve had a few broken molars for a few years now, and they’ve started hurting. Again.
So I’m off to the dentist.
I’m 29. The last time I was at the dentist was when I was 11.
This is not going to be fun, in any way shape or form.
sigh
Here’s wishing you a mostly painless dentist visit.
Eleven? Jeezmus. Around here, dentists have the bad habit of mailing out postcards when they feel you’re in need of a ‘check-up.’
Unfortunately, the number of check-ups that have wound up being more than check-ups make me dread them.
Did I mention I just got one in the mail today? :smack:
Lots and lots and lots of luck to you!
Make them give you lots of pain killers, too!
just send the excess my way 
They’re probably going to want to do a cavity search.
For your dental enjoyment, Cavity Search by Mr. Weird Al.
If you don’t have it, you need to find a copy so you can hear all the lovely sound effects.
Yeah, I know. 18 years is a long time. But I moved… out of state.
And there was this bus full of penguins…
I’m just scared to death of dentists, and have avoided it for far too long.
Searing mouth pain, however, can be a good motivator.
Thanks for the support, though. I appreciate it!
Good luck. Be sure to let us know how everything went! I’ve got this, uh, friend, who’s been putting off her dental appt for a few years now because she’s an idiot. And afraid.
Be sure to specify you don’t want a mouth piercing. My dentist never seems to understand that.
Heh heh… I don’t think that helped your fear…
Tristan, I feel your pain. It seems the only thing that will motivate me to get to the dentist is massive amounts of pain, to the point that I don’t especially care if they amputate my jaw, JUST MAKE THE PAIN STOP!
A word of advice; given the time since your last visit and the state of your molars, it is unlikely that all will be resolved in a single visit. There may be temporary fillings, root canals to be done, etc. In this case, they will tell you to make an appointment and come back to complete the work. But, it is likely that the vast majority of the pain will be taken care of by the first round of work. At this point the brain of a dentalphobe like myself begins to make deals.[ul][li]“It’s not hurting now, so it’s okay to wait a bit longer.”[/li][li]“If I go back, they’re going to cause more pain; better to wait until the amount of pain I’m experiencing is more than the dentist will inflict.”[/li][li]“Damn! I’ve waited too long, and have done more damage to the tooth/teeth. Might as well put it off as long as possible since it’s a lost cause anyway.”[/li][li]“Etc., etc.”[/li][/ul]An object case of the above; in January of 2003 I finally went in to get a root canal on a tooth which had been giving me periodic pain for years. Root canal was done, and a temporary filling put it in. Pain was gone! But, life got busy, and I kept finding excuses not to go back and complete the work, even when bits of the temporary started coming out. Fast forward to last Friday, when the distinctive sound of a breaking tooth was heard as I was eating dinner. I now have a nice sedative filling to hold together the remnants of the tooth together and to keep me from performing self-dentistry to make the pain stop, and in June I will be seeing the nice oral surgeon for what promises to be an “interesting” extraction.
Finally, good luck, and don’t do as I do!
You may be pleasantly surprised by how dentistry has changed in the past two decades. Do yourself a favor and make sure to tell everyone on the staff who will listen how afraid you are. If they’re a modern dental office, they’ll make a concerted effort to make you comfortable and to keep your experience as pain-free as possible. It’s in their best interest as well as yours, since it’s far easier to work on someone who isn’t flinching and wincing throughout the procedure. You’re probably going to have to go back more than once, so take the time to discuss your treatment in depth on the first visit. Be sure you know before they start what they propose to do, what the possibilities for treatment are (for instance, might you need a root canal, or will they be able to just put on crowns/caps?), and how much it’s likely to cost. Ask about the anesthesia they use, and if your treatment is likely to be lengthy or particularly painful, you might even ask about getting anti-anxiety medication for the visit. If you don’t understand what the dentist is telling you, ask questions.
Good luck!
Well?
Hehehe… it’s currently 7:45am here, and I will be headed to the Dentists office in about 5 hours.
Still worried.
Brushed my teeth REALLY good this morning… why do we do that? It’s not like he isn’t expecting a mouth of decay anyways… sigh
You should eat a dozen or so Oreo cookies right before your appointment.
That little porcelain bowl attached to the dental chair… it’s a urinal.
Well, after spending quite some time, and getting my whole mouth X-Rayed…
After my insurance pays for what it will pay for, I will still need to come up with $2700 to cover the co-pays on my stuff.
5 teeth to be pulled.
about 9 fillings.
a root canal
deep cleaning and irrigation
that’s a start.
4 of the teeth to be pulled are Wisdom teeth… the ones on the top are broken and decayed, the ones on the bottom are still beneath the gums, but impacted.
sigh
I’ll be going back next month to get this whole thing started…
:eek:
I sure wish you luck with the dentist. My old one retired and I don’t trust my new one.
I hate to even think about my teeth. The last time I got a coupon for a supposedly cheap dental insurance plan tied to a dental office chain. Boy did they see me coming. They wanted to put crowns on four teeth when the xrays were clear! The doc said he just didn’t like my former dentist’s work. And the “insurance” would only have covered half of forty grand. So now I’m looking for a dentist again, this time I’ll check for one who’s been able to fix someone I know without overdoing it.
I’ve been meaning to say this for a while, so I figure this is as good as any. Last time I went to my dentist (about a month ago, first time in 5 years) he talked like the boss from Office Space.
“Yeah…if you could just get the floss up in between your teeth a little more? That would be great.”
“Yeah…I’m going to need you to come back in here again. Probably in around…six months or so…yeah…”
He may have been doing it just to put me at ease, since I don’t care of dental visits. Still, this…
…makes me want to brush and floss right now.
Give the office your medical insurance info and ask them to submit a pretreatment request for the extractions of the impacted wisdom teeth. This is standard at the oral surgeon’s office we refer to. Medical, if there is coverage, frequently pays more of the charges for these extractions. Not all dentists will do this, but they all can.
Ask them to send in a pretreatment request to your dental insurance for ALL the work needed, while you are at it. Unless they have worked with your exact policy before, or are a Participating Provider in a PPO, any numbers they gave you were estimates.
Find out when the calendar year starts for your policy. You listed a lot of work to be done; a number of visits over the next couple months will be needed to finish. Perhaps the most pessing work can be done now, with the remainder after your policy rollover date. Tnat will allow you to take advantage of the new year’s benefits, reducing your out of pocket costs. With all that work you are still looking at a huge hit to the wallet.
(And you’ll probably need a crown on that root canal treated tooth. Add another $1000 or so. Oh, yeah, and a bridge to replace that 5th extracted tooth.)
Dental insurance is my life.