Last week I was back at the dentist again for the 4th time in 3 weeks. But at least this time it was the last of my appointments for all the work I had done. It was supposed to only be 3 appointments (my original cleaning and exam, part 1 of a crown, and part 2 of a crown), but I did have that extra appointment the day after the first part of my crown to have the temporary fixed. For someone who fears the dentist, this was a lot to go through. But going into the last appointment I was trying to tell myself that it was going to be the easiest and quickest appointment.
Of course, like everything that happened over the past few weeks, it didn’t quite go like that. It should have been easy to remove the temporary crown, fit the permanent one, and cement it down. I don’t know exactly how long it should have taken, but I expected to be out of there in under an hour for sure. I was hoping it would be under 30 minutes. But things were not just in my favor. First, the dentists were running a bit behind. Another patient had an emergency and I understand those things happen. I didn’t mind that it was running late and was ready to get things started by the time I was in the chair.
Once my temporary crown was removed, the dentist noticed there was a little bit of plaque on the tooth underneath. I was afraid something like that happened because the night before I was worried that a bit of food got under the temporary crown. It doesn’t fit perfectly so that is possible and that’s what probably happened to me. But in order to keep my tooth under the crown healthy, they had to clean it. And since the tooth is shaved down, things hurt more than cleaning normal teeth. I was given the option of getting numbing shots, but I preferred to deal with the pain of the cleaning over shots. It wasn’t fun and I had to have the dentist take breaks from time to time, but I got through it and was ready to move on to fitting the permanent crown.
The crowns never fit perfectly and they always have to be fitted. But for some reason, my crown just was not fitting right after multiple attempts to fit it. My dentist was able to get it eventually, but it took several tries. Every time it was attempted, it did hurt a bit. It’s a weird pain sensation when it happens and I remembered exactly what it was like from the last time I got a crown. I braced myself each time because it never got easier. But the downside to doing the fitting so many times is that my gums got a bit inflamed and swollen. Which made it even harder when it was time to cement it down. My dentist had me do some things to help make it better, but it took time waiting as well.
Finally, we got to cementing the crown on. That part was probably one of the most painful parts for me (it’s the pain of the tooth underneath and the coldness of the cement), but I was so glad we were finally at the last step. I was ready to be done because this “quick” appointment really ended up taking almost 2 hours. I know that things were just not happening the way they should have and this was not anyone’s fault. But it was a little frustrating that everything seemed to be working against me and making this so much harder to deal with.
But I tried to focus on the positives. I did get all the work done that needed to be done. If it wasn’t done, things would have been so much worse for me when I did have them fixed. And I shouldn’t have to do a crazy amount of work like this again soon, hopefully. I do know that the other crowns I have will eventually need to be replaced, but I’m hoping it will be years later. And I think this was a great way for me to become very comfortable with my new dentists. They are aware of my fears and issues and are very willing to work with me. I feel confident that when I need to have major work again that they will be just as willing to work with all my issues. They have only been my dentists for 3 weeks, but I’m almost as comfortable with them as I was with my old dentist who I had for almost 18 years.
I have no clue if these intense appointments made my fear of the dentist better or worse, but I do know that it helped me feel more comfortable with what happens going forward. Just because I’m comfortable doesn’t mean that I’m not as fearful, but it does mean that I’m not scared that I will be at an appointment and the dentist will not be ok with making sure I’m ok. That’s a good step for me.
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