Who else is scared (terrified) of dentists?

[Davent]

Had some tooth pain last 3 days.
Went to my local dentist , x ray.
Found I had a problem underneath an old filling in a molar. Dug it out, and re filled.
She didn't sound confident it would fix the problem. The whole time she was drilling I was in pain, from the cold water on the other teeth.
She found a crack in an upper tooth, and that's what I think was / is causing the pain.
$400 today. Tried to book me tomorrow, but I'm working 7/7 next 2 days, so will see. Atm, the local is still full on, and my whole mouth is pretty numb.
Where does my fear come from?
Well, I'm 54 yo.
I went to the school dentist. We were marched there, and lined up outside.
He was an old man, I'm talking about it was 1978 I think, no gloves back then, and he was a smoker. I remember gagging when he stuck his fingers in my gob, pulled a tooth, and the local anaesthetic wasn't in the right place. Lots of pain, and yelling, him telling me I was a sook etc.....

And then a while later I watched a movie called the marathon man....seen that?
Nazis war crim interrogating Dustin Hoffman in a dentist chair, drilling a tooth....
"Is it safe".....
"is what safe?"
"IS IT SAFE???!!!!"
"I don't know what you mean?"
Dentist pokes his tooth nerve with a hook thing....
"Is it safe!??"
"YES!! YES!! It's safe!!!!!!"

"Good, where is it?"
.........

 

[lordo.1]

Sounds very much like my dental experience in the 1970 s in both school and public hospital dentist . An absolutely horrific time, Im almost certain this caused my deep fear and dislike of dentists , been twice in the last 40 years once for wisdom teeth once to get single tooth pulled after it broke just last year my opinion has not changed

 

[Capertee gold]

Same mate had a tooth pulled out in my 20's lots of blood and was a bit off colour ,got up walked down the hall passed out and fell through the plate glass doors ,yeah I'm with yah on dentist

 

[Manpa]

Yep, similar experiences in the seventies, do not like dentists at all, they have gotten better though. My current dentist understands my phobia/fear and I have the ol laughing gas every time now. So much more relaxed about treatments now.
stupidly for many years I would rather have had an operation rather than dental treatment.

 

[LONEWOLF]

A pair of pliers works well and a bottle of Bourbon...

LW...

 

[Greenhornet_au]

Not really a fear here, but I avaoid them as long as I can.
ALL of my teeth are cracked from having braces fitted by pounding them onto the teeth. He fitted little metal bands around the teeth and pushed them down tight by using a hammer and almost a chisel like tool, every tooth is cracked now.
This was at the age of 14yrs.

 

[Mackka]

Private Health Insurance and the pain goes away
why didn’t you ask for a pain killer injection?
Best Wishes and i always go for a piddle before i get in the chair.

 

[sand surfer]

same here davent ,school dentist in the late 60'and 70's, i don't know about your area but here the thieves charge $300 plus to pull a tooth ($250 for the tooth and $50 for a xray) and that was 2 years ago
with you LW the good old pliers but rum not bourbon, can't stand bourbon

 

[Davent]

same here davent ,school dentist in the late 60'and 70's, i don't know about your area but here the thieves charge $300 plus to pull a tooth ($250 for the tooth and $50 for a xray) and that was 2 years ago
with you LW the good old pliers but rum not bourbon, can't stand bourbon

Filling here is $350, $396 with 2 locals, and extraction is a coool $500.

 

[Spiderman Dundee]

Had some tooth pain last 3 days.
Went to my local dentist , x ray.
Found I had a problem underneath an old filling in a molar. Dug it out, and re filled.
She didn't sound confident it would fix the problem. The whole time she was drilling I was in pain, from the cold water on the other teeth.
She found a crack in an upper tooth, and that's what I think was / is causing the pain.
$400 today. Tried to book me tomorrow, but I'm working 7/7 next 2 days, so will see. Atm, the local is still full on, and my whole mouth is pretty numb.
Where does my fear come from?
Well, I'm 54 yo.
I went to the school dentist. We were marched there, and lined up outside.
He was an old man, I'm talking about it was 1978 I think, no gloves back then, and he was a smoker. I remember gagging when he stuck his fingers in my gob, pulled a tooth, and the local anaesthetic wasn't in the right place. Lots of pain, and yelling, him telling me I was a sook etc.....

And then a while later I watched a movie called the marathon man....seen that?
Nazis war crim interrogating Dustin Hoffman in a dentist chair, drilling a tooth....
"Is it safe".....
"is what safe?"
"IS IT SAFE???!!!!"
"I don't know what you mean?"
Dentist pokes his tooth nerve with a hook thing....
"Is it safe!??"
"YES!! YES!! It's safe!!!!!!"

"Good, where is it?"
.........

You and me both davent, we most probably went to that same school dentist as I’m only 1 year older. I still remember the old place in Mitchel Street in the city.Had a phobia ever since to the point where I have no choice but go . Usually leave missing a tooth with a sore wallet .
Keep up the good work mate
Gav

 

[sand surfer]

probably the same amount here now dave ,haven't been back since

 

[Hilux]

You are not alone, I have to get my wife to make my dental appointments.

 

[Wishfull]

I had a tooth pulled out in 2000. The dentists name was Dr Butcher would you believe ?
He had his knee on my chest as he was tugging on my molar.
He got Most of it out. But it left a hole through to my nasal cavity.
About 6 months later I sneezed and out came the rest if my tooths root.
Haven't been back to a dentist since. Still have all but that one tooth.

 

[Hilux]

I had a tooth pulled out in 2000. The dentists name was Dr Butcher would you believe ?
He had his knee on my chest as he was tugging on my molar.
He got Most of it out. But it left a hole through to my nasal cavity.
About 6 months later I sneezed and out came the rest if my tooths root.
Haven't been back to a dentist since. Still have all but that one tooth.

Any more stories like this an I will never see a dentist every again!

 

[Jaros]

When attending Dandenong High School the dentists name was Dr. Hyde-truly. I used to take a few appt cards away for when I wanted to wag school.

 

[Mackka]

Remember, if you are on blood thinners, tell your dentist a week before you have an extraction or root canal. Mackka

 

[allcables]

here's my story as a kid we don't have a lot. lived on snags and potato and soup. so l grew up a skinny weedy kid.
did a few naughty things and ended up in state care. as my teeth started to fall apart l was taken to the state hospital to have them removed. l was ok up to this point. once there the pain and terror began, every week l would go back to have more teeth removed, l was always spitting blood from the week before, but that was not a problem to the trainees pulling twisting cracking and braking the teeth out. to this day 68yr old l still have a needle dentist fobia

 

[user 4386]

One story worth being aware of. At the start of the year I developed an abcess on my gum from an infection in the bone above a tooth I had had thousands spent on for root canal work, a false tooth and a bridge connecting it to the adjacent tooth. Went to an emergency dentist (looked fresh out of dental school) who took an xray (that showed a big hole in the bone of the upper jaw) and lanced the abcess, gave me antibiotics and told me to make an appointment to have the entire tooth with root canal treatment, false tooth and bridge removed permanently ($5000 at the time I seem to recall). He said none of the bridge could be used from the old one. I protested that we should wait and see, he insisted, I got annoyed and said I would go back to my normal dentist for a second opinion (late 70s). I have since done that and he said that he always waits to see - he has now x-rayed it and it shows that the bone is growing back and with luck no further work will be required.

And no, no one likes pain, but a bit of pain never killed anyone.

 

[Manpa]

Just like a fall never killed anyone, it’s the sudden stop at the bottom that gets you.

 

[Chewy]

I've put off going to the dentist many times. I'm doing it now actually. Eventually it comes back to bite me on the bum, but yeah the fear is there in the back of my mind. I have a phobia about needles, which is what drives it for me. But also I have had a few bad experiences where they numb me up but then hit the nerve drilling. No amount of anaesthetic is enough when that happens.