So, uh, anyone ever embarrass themselves this way before?

[Mama_Zappa]

@Miss Purl McKnittington

…
I’m currently putting off going to the dentist to some cavities filled because . . . because, OK? When I do finally go, I’m thinking about requesting a tranquilizer or something, because I’m too old to have my mommy in the room with me holding my hand.
…

Heh, I understand perfectly! We switched dentists a few months back. Well, the kids had been seeing the new dentist for a year or more but I put off going myself because, well, because :). Needed major work. Told the dentist flat out that I had a severe and well-earned dental phobia. She said “no problem. We give nitrous oxide, plus Halcion, and that lets us get you really numb”. I spent 5 hours in the chair and didn’t really care. I highly recommend pharmaceutical help!

Never gone so far as to faint as NearlyNinjaChick did though it would have been welcome a few times. I did panic and leave without working being done, recently, when I thought they were just checking on something and they were expecting to do a crown/inlay placement. The plate glass window was beginning to look like a fine way to exit the office, so I said I’d come back when I was able to get doped up beforehand

[FlyingCowOfDoom]

@sugar and spice

When I was 15 I fainted at my pediatrician’s office after getting a shot. I had already made it out into the reception room, and then collapsed. I had walked to the office myself so they had to call my mom to come pick me up. They said there was no medical reason for me to pass out, I must have just been freaked out by the needle.

This happened to me when I was 14. I got my MMR immunization and went out to the front desk. As I was standing there waiting for my mom to do some paperwork, I looked at the “hole” where the needle went. Big mistake. Next thing I knew, I was on the floor with people around me. As I started to recover, I noticed that one of my molars felt like it was moved…then the pain set in. I broke my jaw in three places. Luckily enough, I didn’t need to get wired shut, just had to eat milkshakes and Ramen noodles for 8 weeks.

–FCOD

[Mama_Zappa]

@minor7flat5

I thought about this recently, but decided against it.

Since I seem to have worn my back teeth a bit thin, the dentist wants to install crowns. This work will involve big machinery.
No iPod in the world is going to cover up the sound of some scary four-fluted quarter-inch carbide tipped burr that is grinding great chunks of tooth away, causing the skull and jawbone to resonate. Besides, I like to be aware of things so I can grip the armrests of the chair tighter at appropriate times.

Get the drugs (or nitrous) and you won’t care about the chair armrests

I brought my iPod during my 5-hour session and it did help. Only thing was I kept having to fumble with it to backspace because I’d zoned out through part of the audiobook I had going. I doubt its noise covered the drilling but as I said, I had chemical help onboard and it really didn’t matter, lalalalalalawheeeee!! I think my dentist actually has ipods or walkmans (walkmen?) or something available to help drown out the sound.

[vibrotronica]

I recently had my teeth cleaned for the first time in waaaay too long because I don’t like the dentist. When I got into the exam room, I started to freak out a little bit and then said to myself “Calm down. It’s OK. You’re a grown man getting your teeth cleaned. Nothing to be afraid of.” So I got in the chair and things seemed to be progressing as normal without any shouting or fainting or grown men crying until about halfway through the procedure when the hygeinist asked “Is it hot in here? 'Cause you’re sweating bullets.”

[C3]

My brother fainted at the dentist’s office. He was having his wisdom teeth out. They used some kind of red antiseptic liquid and when he came to after the procedure, he saw it all over his little bib. He thought it was blood and promptly passed out.

I’ve passed out a few times in public, but never at the dentist. Twice was at the vet’s office. The first was when my dog injured her eye. They were describing the damage and I was out, on the floor. The second time, they were taking blood for tests. After that, the dentist asked for me not to bring her by myself. He was sick of getting the smelling salts out (which work great, by the way!).

Another time I passed out in public was at the mall. It was a really hot day and I hadn’t really eaten much. I was walking from my car into the mall and I looked down at my checkbook to see my balance. I’m not sure what the deal was, but I fainted dead away. Two professional-looking guys in suits, obviously there for lunch, picked me up and took me to their car, where they turned on the A/C. They sat with me, offered to call somebody, and made sure I was okay. After a few minutes, I was fine and I went into the mall to grab lunch and buy a pair of shoes. Weird.

I’m a fainter, but it runs in my family. My mom and my brother are, too.

[Lagavulin]

Well…there was the time I came into work severely jet-lagged and exhausted, whacked my knee on the corner of my desk, sat down thinking I was going to be sick from the pain, put my head down…and came to a couple minutes later to discover I’d wet myself. That was about as humiliating as it gets. Particularly as it was a new job. I still cringe to think about it.

[teela_brown]

I (almost) passed out at the vet’s, too. Our little dog had gashed the hell out of himself while dashing through a drift of leaves in a public park. There must have been a broken bottle hidden in there, and he opened a 2" cut on his hock.

It didn’t bother me to see the wound, but when the doctor started stitching it up, the “tunnel vision” thing happened to me, and suddenly the vet and my husband were propping me up and moving me out to the waiting room. I sat out the rest of the stitching job out there, feeling like a wimp.

[NinjaChick]

@Lagavulin

Well…there was the time I came into work severely jet-lagged and exhausted, whacked my knee on the corner of my desk, sat down thinking I was going to be sick from the pain, put my head down…and came to a couple minutes later to discover I’d wet myself. That was about as humiliating as it gets. Particularly as it was a new job. I still cringe to think about it.

Oh my. You win, hands down. That must’ve been horrid.

[Faruiza]

Hmm. I’ve never passed out in my life. Not even from being drunk or anything. I’ve always wondered what it felt like. My husband says it’s pretty much like y’all are describing here, tunnel vision and then people standing over you.
I hope I never do it.

[Incensed]

1st Episode-When I was in fifth grade, we were reading a book entitled, IIRC, “The Girl Who Owned a City”. There was a (somewhat) graphic scene involving amatuer surgery, and I began to feel weak, slightly nauseated, etc. while reading this passage. With the teacher’s permission, I excused myself to the nurses office and promptly passed out 20 feet from the classroom door. I wasn’t out long, because I remember getting up and collecting myself, then looking over my should as my teacher poked her head out into the hallway, apparently investigating the loud THWAP sound a human face makes when it hits a tile floor via uninhibited gravity.

2nd Episode-Doesn’t involve passing out, but since it involves embarrassment and loss of consciousness, I think its relevant. My senior year of HS-with the help of another overzealous 17 year old football player- I dealt myself a wicked concussion. After I had passed the applicable tests at the local hospital, various friends and family members started trickling in to show their concern, then later to laugh and gasp at the inexorably introverted kid who was suddenly talking incessantly, operating with absolutely **NO ** brain to mouth filter-and a suspended sense of social protocol, I might add.

I have no recollection of this (didn’t know who/where I was until the following morning), but from what I have gathered through cringing inquiries in the intervening years, I cussed with every breath I drew, said precisely what came into my mind (a scary prospect if you know me), issued damning directives, missives and declamations from on high with stoic certainty and no modicum of empathy or remorse, leveled accusations of idiocy against various idiots and hospital staff who happened to draw my ire or simply made the mistake of coming within my field of vision/judgment, and-here’s the kicker-asked the room at large-volubly and repeatedly- if I had managed to get laid* after the homecoming dance that was to follow the game-which I obviously hadn’t attended. :smack:

The highlight of the night (I’m told) was when one of the more vacuous adults in attendance asked aloud precisely what a concussion was; The question wasn’t intended for me, but I silenced the room when I fielded it smartly-explaining the logistics of concussions whilst concussed.

The lowlight of the night (I’m told) was that my then girlfriend of less than a month (a girl who I’d spent the summer pining for) was in attendance, as was one of her friends-a spectacular athlete and eventual valedictorian (not to mention hot) girl who I’d pined for since 7th grade. You guessed it-I remembered the latter’s name (and probably stated my undying love for her in unequivocal terms, possibly recounting the ways I wanted to defile her body in order to express this love), but when someone asked me my OWN GIRLFRIEND’S NAME-WHILE SHE WAS STARING ME IN THE FACE- the best I could manage was a sincere :dubious:?

*I was a 17 year old male virgin-with a shiny new girlfriend; suffice it to say ‘sex’ was my goal in life at the time.

[jayjay]

@Mama Zappa

Never gone so far as to faint as NearlyNinjaChick did though it would have been welcome a few times. I did panic and leave without working being done, recently, when I thought they were just checking on something and they were expecting to do a crown/inlay placement. The plate glass window was beginning to look like a fine way to exit the office, so I said I’d come back when I was able to get doped up beforehand

Oh, I HATE that feeling! I recently had what I thought was a routine follow-up with my regular dentist after having had some extractions done at the oral surgeon’s (because I wasn’t going to have that happen while I was conscious in any way!). Turns out she wanted to do at least two fillings right then and there! That queasy, panicky feeling started, but I managed to make myself have two done, after about fifteen minutes of hemming and hawing and vacillating.