Sharp pointy things are evil.
1.ONE ouch is scary.
2.Two are real scary.
3.Three are torture.
4. I’m a wimp.
5. I’m a real wimp.
6. I don’t like sharp pointy things.
7. Especially in my mouth.
8. Pointy things bad.
Psychological pain is bad, too. It’s the stress of never knowing when the sharp pointy thing is going to move from this nice healthy spot to a spot that’s going to hurt.
So even when nothing hurts, I tense up every muscle in my whole body , waiting for the dreaded next moment when the sharp pointy thing will feel… sharp and pointy.
They say dentists have a higher suicide rate than average. I dunno why, but using sharp pointy things all day on people who don’t like you ain’t my idea of how to enjoy your job.
This thread reminds me how happy I am with my dentist. I started with the father, and the son took over the practice. I hope the son outlives me. I don’t ever want to try to find another.
But yet, he still says I am a “good patient”, so maybe he deals with a lot of “bad” patients? My being “good” consists IMO of never moving and keeping my mouth open. I’m not sure that is a high bar to get over, but I’ll take my gold stars wherever I can get them!
Personal anecdotes are great but we have an actual real-life dentist Doper, @rsat3acr, who I’m sure could fill us in with stories from the other side of the chair.
I personally don’t mind dental work. I don’t like it, to be sure, but I don’t freak out or lie in the chair sweating bullets. I’ve had a root canal (I think. Long story.) and it didn’t bother me but of course the doc pumped me full of the good stuff before commencing the slash and burn portion of the festivities. I basically lay there bored trying not to fall asleep. My wife avoids dental work until a problem that she can no longer ignore manifests itself. My youngest son has a pretty deep fear of needles so also avoids dental work, but both will go in and see the dentist when it’s necessary.
I happened to have my first dental checkup in a couple years just last week (I had canceled a checkup when I was having a really busy week at work and just never got around to rescheduling). I had a lot of tartar buildup, and the dental hygienist admonished me gently about that, but other than that my teeth and gums checked out OK and I got a clean bill of health. She said “no cavities!” I said “maybe all the tartar formed a protective shield against getting cavities, hahah”.
She said some patients she’d seen had advanced gum disease so bad the tartar was the only thing firmly holding the teeth in place, and after a cleaning they find some of their teeth are loose and she gets yelled at and accused of loosening the teeth. That’s when I realized I would never, ever ever want to be a dental hygienist. For all they must put up with, they are saints.
This. To me a dental cleaning is more annoying than a haircut, but only mildly more annoying. Sit silently in an awkward position for 30 minutes, pay the nice person, and leave. There’s probably more total annoyance in two haircuts than one cleaning.
The absolute worst it’s ever hurt is about like getting a static electric shock from a doorknob, or the occasional diabetic fingerstick I do that hits a nerve ending dead-on.
I do it almost all the time. My dentist knows i prefer it, and we talk about how much pain is likely for any given procedure.
Honestly, i find haircuts more annoying. But i did once have a dentist who was really rough. He routinely numbed my gums (with cream) so it didn’t hurt while he cleaned and scraped my teeth, but an hour later I’d notice that my gums were full of little cuts where he was clumsy with his tools. He was kinda old, and maybe just didn’t have enough dexterity to do a good job anymore.
But I’m general, i like a good dental cleaning. My teeth feel all clean when they are done, and the actual procedure is… fine, i guess. Not actually enjoyable, but not particularly unpleasant, either.
I have a lot of anxiety around dental work, and sometimes that anxiety causes me to be something less than my best self.
Late last year, I developed a painless chip in a lower wisdom tooth that I wanted to deal with while it was still painless - and I knew extraction was the best option, especially since the associated upper tooth had been extracted years before.
My anxiety was worsened by the fact that I’d been getting conflicting answers on whether my dentist handled this in house or referred it out. They ended up referring it out, which was the best choice by far, but in the moment I was frustrated because I felt I’d been mislead and I thought I was going to be paying for an appointment when nothing was done and I was still going home with a cracked tooth.
They ended up not charging me for the appointment, and I’m not sure that would’ve happened if I hadn’t been such an anxiety-ridden pain in the ass. On one level this was great, but on another level I kind of don’t like it when my bad behavior pays off, because it reinforces my tendencies.
But after that experience I started being more upfront with my dentist about my anxiety and the fact that it affects my behavior, and they set me up with blankets, sunglasses and squeeze toys……this actually worked, and now I have a lot less anxiety around dental work. Plus, it’s on my chart now so I don’t have to ask for the stuff anymore, it’s ready and waiting.
I’ll also suggest there’s difference between cleanings and all other dental procedures.
And a big difference between those of us who’ve had lots of those other procedures and those of us who’ve had nearly zero of them. My lifetime experience of dentists (as distinct from hygienists) is very close to “They look around in there, gently tap a tooth or two with a small metal stick, then pronounce everything fine and healthy.” Then they ask for $75; by far the worst part of the process.
For those who are anxiety-prone, any one bad experience amps up the apprehension for all future encounters. Which seems to be a one-way ratchet.
I visited my dentist a month or so ago. They asked me why I waited almost 18 months instead of twelve months to see them again. I said it was because every time I see them it costs me $3,000. Not for the cleaning but something else they find.
That visit cost me $2,800 (not the cleaning but the other stuff I had to do). I do not have dental insurance (which is crap anyway).
I get this stuff needs fixing but it is hard to choose to go to the dentist when you know it will cost you a lot of money.
I have a watch that tracks stress based on heart rate variability. Without fail in the middle of the dentist my smart watch will say, “You seem to be under a lot of stress. Would you like to try some breathing exercises?”
In our case we filed it on regular medical insurance and they pick up the anesthesia costs.
After all, wisdom tooth removal is a surgical procedure.
At age 13 they discovered she had a baby tooth that never came out. Lower left 3rd tooth from center.
They actually put her in an outpatient hospital and extracted it and placed a permanent implant.
Of course I did. I’m special.
I’m pretty sure it wasn’t in the olden days. My major dental issues started when I broke my whole face in a car wreck. Lost all teeth on my left side. Had to have many implants done. The dental care after the main reconstruction was a long, seemingly never ending affair. In the last 15 years. So not ancient.
Of course I’ve had to maintain my remaining natural teeth. I think it was 4 or 5 years ago I had a small filling done. They decided I was extremely anxious. And I was. Decisions were made that nitrous would be the best bet.
No more gas for me after that.
My dad’s wife is one of those. She crows about how she never needed anesthetic and how easy it is and so on.
Then one day my dentist, who also happens to be their dentist, let slip that her teeth are all but perfect and in all of her decades she might have actually had one or two tiny fillings. While it’s really cool that she has taken such great care of her teeth, it means that she doesn’t know what it is like to grip the armrests of the dental chair with white knuckles as the dentist’s drill is hogging out great swaths of unhappy tooth.
For the rest of us, who by our later years have loads of crowns and other metal in our mouths, I can’t imagine going at it without some serious medication.
I tell him to give me enough to knock out a horse.
I got in the habit when i was a kid and terrified of needles. I convinced my pediatric dentist to do most of my fillings without novacaine. (There was one where he told me he really had to give me the shot, because it was deep and would be very painful.) I’m no longer terrified of needles, but I’m also not afraid of a little dental pain. And it takes a long time for the lidocaine to wear off, and i don’t like the way it feels to go about my day with a numbed mouth.
The things i really try to avoid, though, is sedation. Because lidocaine is just mildly unpleasant. Whereas I’ve had extremely unpleasant experiences with sedation. So I’ve also done both colonoscopies and most of my upper GI scopes without sedation. An upper endoscopy is pretty unpleasant. But … It takes about 7 minutes, and then it’s done and i can go on with my day.
Anyway, I’m a pretty good patient. I sit still and present the part they want to work on and keep other parts (like the tongue) out of the way. If i need to request something, i wave my hand or something. Something not in the way.
I’ve got a pretty freakishly high tolerance for pain. Like others say, dental work isn’t a ton of fun, but I can’t imagine why people describe it as torture.
For that matter, I never really understand people who complain about their mouth feeling numb afterwards. I mean, I guess it feels a little weird, but not a big deal.
I have always had really sensitive gums, which makes any kind of dental work, even a mild scraping/cleaning result in some kind of soreness afterward. The only major work I’ve had done was a wisdom teeth extraction when I was 23, by a surgeon named Dr. Fear. He commented at the time, “This should be pretty straightforward, I don’t think we’ll need to break your jaw or anything.” Well, that’s a relief. They put me out for that. I didn’t love the recovery but I opted to stop pain meds early because of side-effects.
I find cavity fillings painless but extremely stressful because of the possibility that there might be pain. And I’m always sore afterward.