Oh God, help me, please!

[pinkcarys]

Sorry, only been here a day and I'm asking for help already.

I have a loose crown. No biggie I hear you say, but I have a phobia of teeth. Not dentists or anything normal like that, but teeth. This is a proper phobia not just an "I don't really like it" sort of thing. My OH and I have never had a proper kiss because I can't bear the thought that I might accidentally touch his teeth or he might touch mine. I can't look at pictures or diagrams of teeth. Of course, included in this is an extreme aversion to dentists. At the moment I don't think I could even phone the receptio to make the appointment let alone walk into the place. This isn't going to be solved by "being brave" or "take your mum for support". (sorry, that's what usually gets suggested) I need some proper advice on dealing with a phobia. I've tried hypnotherapy but she kept asking me to imagine touching my teeth which made me feel sick so we had to stop. Can anyone make any suggestions, especially ones that don't involve spending much money?

Thanks,
Carys
-x-

[Simon]

There are other kinds of phobia reduction therapy which are in circulation. There's a guy who teaches people to reduce their phobias through hypnotic techniques that dont require 'sleeping' or anything similar. He was on TV for a while but I cant remember his name at all. He was also on Richard and Judy!

Was also looking at some phobia books on Amazon. Found this one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anxiety-Phobia-Workbook/dp/1572244135/ref=pd_bowtega_1/026-5660757-8974856?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187884024&sr=1-1) which looks quite popular and is highly rated.

[MightyMouth]

Valium. Its the only way :shock:

[Alpha]

hi honey I sympathasie I had some knobhead dentist fill a tooth on top of an abscess and have never been backsince they ended up taking it out.
Can I ask how you coped with getting your crown done in the first place or did this start your phobia off.
Can you ask if you could be sedated and have it done at the dental hospital instead.
I really hope you find a solution to this but other than that I'm not much help really.

[pinkcarys]

hi honey I sympathasie I had some knobhead dentist fill a tooth on top of an abscess and have never been backsince they ended up taking it out.
Can I ask how you coped with getting your crown done in the first place or did this start your phobia off.
Can you ask if you could be sedated and have it done at the dental hospital instead.
I really hope you find a solution to this but other than that I'm not much help really.


I've always had a strong dislike ofdentists, not helped by having an abscess that wasn't treated properly. The same as you actually. He put a filling in a cracked tooth and then realised it had an abscess after I went back three times in agony. Then after having the root canal filled the tooth broke a couple of times so they stuck a crown on. I wasn't overly keen on dentists at teh time but could cope. Since then I've just developed a proper phobia of teeth. I first realised when I was flicking through some children's exercise books and saw a very simple childs diagram of a tooth and was nearly sick. Its just kind of grown from there.

[lyn]

when i was 11 our dentist gave me a huge black eye :09: he punched me coz i was scared of those big black gas masks they used to use.

[stumpy]

I used to be petrified with a capital PET and needed valium just for a clean and polish. Now some 5 years or so later, I get my teeth filled without even an injection in the gum. For me it took time and regular visits to my dentist and we have built up a lot of trust over that time. If he says I don't need an injection I don't have one and I trust him. If you can get valium for your crown treatement, it may help you to keep going back, even just at the end of surgery just to get used to going into the dentist, sitting in the chair, etc...... May sound nutty but it worked for me and believe me, i'm an absolute coward!!

My heart goes out to you and I wish you all the very best.

Lyn........the footer on your message may be upsetting on this thread.... :o

[Michelle]

Try having a little look at EFT that looks as though it could be useful to you :13:

[Jen'n'Moodles]

Anaesthetic........!!

I'm better now but I had a ma-hoo-sive thing about needles!!! Not anywhere else as I've given blood three times a year since I was 17 and never had a local or anything, no issues anywhere else BUT MY MOUTH!!! If anyone even hinted at the fact they were going to stick a needle in my mouth I think I would quite happily drive over them and then reverse back over.....dum-dum (back wheels), dum-dum (front wheels).....just to make sure there was no risk of them getting me!!! But I found a great dentist who used to tell me he wasn't going to do anything, then distract me with Orlando and Johnny Pirating in the Caribbean (he has an LCD TV on the ceiling in the surgery) and the he'd just do it!! I should have never gone back and put in a formal complaint but to be fair to him he's great and I go every year and see him and I'm much more chilled now......but getting back to the point........

............I was awful when I was younger an dneed to have 4 teeth out for Orthadontic Treatment. I went to the hospital and had a general anaesthetic. Needle in hand no worries!!!-if you are okay with that then maybe this is the way forward for you-you'd know nothing about it and you'd wake up and it would all be done! If you look in the yellow pages there are lots of dentists that advertise working with extremely nervous/phobic patients. Maybe give them a call and chat to them about your options, and tell them PRECISELY how you feel about it, you explain it so well above-it really does need that level of detail!

Hope this helps Carys-I really feel for you, let us know how you get on or if there's anything I can do to help-I'm not too far away! xxx