It has taken a long time, but I finally am at a point where I don’t fear the dentist as much as I used to. I still have a fear of the dentist and it makes me panic a bit, but it is nothing like what it was just a few years ago. I’ve had better appointments in the recent past which helped, but I think it is also due to something in my brain chemistry changing that has helped.
For a while, my dentist appointments have been very consistent with the care I was getting as well as the people that I saw. Then, the last time I was there, I discovered that my dentist retired and 2 new dentists took over the office. This caused me to have a bit of panic, but it ended up working out well for me. The new dentists were very understanding with my fear and they were willing to work with me and try to make things easy.
While having new dentists was a big change, since I only see the dentist every 3rd appointment, it wasn’t too bad. As long as my dental hygenist was still there, I was happy. I used to joke to her that I would switch offices if she ever left because she really does work hard to make my panic attacks as minor as possible. But she said she had no plans to leave so I didn’t worry about it.
Then this week, I went to the dentist. My appointment was on Monday and it was just going to be for a cleaning so I would see the hygienist and not the dentist. Things were running a little late, but that wasn’t a big deal. Then one of the dentists came out and said she would get to me as soon as possible. I was so confused since I wasn’t going to be seeing the dentist for a cleaning. And that’s when I discovered that the hygienist was no longer at the office. I couldn’t follow her to another office because she switched careers. I am glad she is going to do something that she has always wanted to do, but I was sad that it was another change and it was causing me to panic a bit.
I ended up having to reschedule my appointment to yesterday because of how late things were running. And while I tried not to think about things, I spent a few days panicking that things were not going to be good at my appointment. I knew the new dentists were very understanding and they said they would work with me and my fear during the cleaning, but I have gotten so used to having my routine and not needing to worry too much. I knew that there was a good chance my appointment was going to be harder than the past few cleanings, but I also knew that I would be fine and that my fear and feeling of panic wasn’t a sign of things to come.
I’m aware that I’m a bit of a pain in the butt at the dentist. It’s not easy to have a patient who is scared and it took a long time to get comfortable with the hygienist who I had been seeing. Fortunately, things went much better than I expected.
I discussed with the dentist about how things had been done in the past to help my fear. And she did explain why those might not have been the best choices. I was willing to take a chance and try her plan, but I asked her to modify a few things. For example, I wanted her to confirm that my teeth were fine and there was nothing she saw that looked concerning. I don’t think that’s a normal part of the cleaning, but I really needed to hear that in order to feel better. And once that part was done, things were easier on me.
The only hard part was not knowing how much longer I had in the appointment since things were being done in a different order. Thankfully, the dentist was very understanding and answered all my questions and explained where we were in the appointment at each step. I kept apologizing for asking a million things, but I don’t think she minded. She was saying that it’s better that I’m aware of what’s going on and making sure I take care of my teeth instead of letting my fear take over and keep me away.
The appointment was a bit longer than I’m used to, but I think that was because the dentist and I had to work together to figure out how to make the appointment the best for me. But in the end, it all worked out for me and I didn’t have any panic attacks while there. My nerves were still affecting me, but that’s something that I don’t think will ever go away. And hopefully, when I go back in 4 months it will get a little easier for me.
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