My New Phobia
May 29th 2008 21:00
Photo by Walter Siegmund. Used in accordance with the terms of Wikimedia Commons’ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
Regular readers of this blog would know about my fear of caterpillars, maggots and other larvae. But it wasn’t until today that I discovered I am also scared of dental procedures.
I have never liked going to the dentist but I am not anxious about it either – except when he sticks the needle in my mouth.
So I went for my semi-annual chomper check-up today, expecting nothing out of the ordinary. After all, I take good care of my teeth and any problems I have get looked at straight away. I haven’t had a toothache for years and normally my check-ups go smoothly…until today’s that is.
So there I was, clutching photos of Butterscotch the cat to take my mind off the dentist when I was told I might need root canal therapy in six month’s time. As my dentist showed me a diagram showing a cross-section of a tooth, complete with all the nerves and other gory bits and explained to me how root canal therapy works, I started to get anxious. It didn’t help when he said the other alternative was to have the tooth taken out. He explained due to the positioning of the tooth and the number of roots (or ‘legs’ as I call them) that yes, it will be complicated and yes, despite the needles to numb my jaw, I will still feel him yanking the tooth out. This only made me feel even more anxious. My dentist also told me root canal wasn’t going to be fun and that it might be uncomfortable. Of course, given my anxiety he could inject Valium into my arm to keep me relaxed throughout the whole procedure. This did nothing to reassure me as I wanted to be completely knocked out. Plus I hate needles.
My third option was to do nothing. This meant I would have to live with a constant toothache and eventually the tooth would have to be extracted or have root canal therapy done on it anyway.
Of course, my dentist stressed that he was giving me the worst case scenario. He said there is a fifty per cent chance I might not need anything done after all.
I am now dreading my next dentist’s appointment. I am so not happy right now. My dentist did say that if I am that anxious about the root canal/extraction that I can always have either procedure done under general anaesthetic. That’s the only option that doesn’t cause me anxiety. Of course, it will be a lot more expensive than having it done the ‘normal’ way but I’m prepared to pay the extra money. That was how I had my wisdom teeth taken out. I just hope my health insurance will cover it.
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