dental anxiety :(

Does anyone else have dental anxiety?

Going to the dentist, even for regular cleanings and checkups fills me with huge, horrible anxiety EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Over the years, I've had several different dentists, and it doesn't matter who I get, I still get extremely anxious.

Having to go for a more complicated procedure (crowns, root canals) is even WORSE.

Today I have to go to the dentist for a tooth that broke off at an old amalgam filling. I am SO, SO nervous. I just want it to be OVER.

My teeth are not great, and I've already had both a root canal and a crown (maybe 2 crowns?) this year. Even worse is that all these dental procedures are very expensive. My dental insurance only covers half the cost, which is a lot, but I will always still owe a ton, and it's always a hit to our finances.

I wish I knew how to cope with this. My pdoc will not prescribe me a benzo even for this

Will your dentist prescribe a benzo? Mine will or they will use laughing gas. They also have weighted blankets available which I always use for fillings or crowns.


I'm sorry you have to go through this. My teeth are messed up from meds and I rarely go a year without a crown or two. I just went in for my xray visit and didn't need anything for the first time in forever. I was so excited I could have hugged my dentist. Do you use prescription fluoride? I'm not great about using it but it does seem to help even with my intermittent use.

I had dental surgery this past summer and the dentist prescribed a benzo for the day of surgery. It didn’t put me out but it did really relax me. He just prescribed two pills for the day of and 12 pain pills for after.

I don’t have dental anxiety though, I do have great antipathy toward the profession as a whole. When I was in my 30’s and 40’s I could not find a dentist that would take payments, they always wanted their money up front and I was poor. I just didn’t have the kind of money they demanded and that ended with me losing my teeth. Between the meds and no dental care there wasn’t a hope in saving them. Even now with Medicare and the affordable healthcare law dental was out of my reach until my inheritance. Dental care of any type except what they call routine care is not covered.

I don't think my dentist will prescribe a benzo as she is from a yonger generation of dentists. I am going to ask for nitreous for the crown setup because every time I've had it without nitreous it's been god-awful. I'm pretty sensitive to the nitreous I think so it gives me a pretty good buzz of not caring what's going on in my mouth during the procedure. Stupid insurance charges $30-$50 more for nitreous and I think it ought to be standard offer and paid for by the insurance without extra surgecharges. At least the dentist didn't want to yank the tooth out as it's a wisdom tooth I managed to keep (only had 2 wisdom teeth pulled as a teenager). I know when I had to have the root canal this summer, I didn't get benzos but nitreous and about a 6 day supply of hydrocodone after.

And yep, with this last broken tooth, I had to get another crown, going in next week Monday to start it, going to cost $400 with dental insurance and a bit more to tack on the niteous.

AND in the meantime, they said oh, guess what, your dental cleaning is coming right up, we'll fix you in for x-rays and cleaning this Wednesday. SHYT! And look, we have an opening Thursday, you can bring your daughter in for her x-rays and cleanings (poor daughter-nearly 17 yr old- must have inherited my crappy teeth, she takes such good care of them and only drinks water, with maybe a startbucks mocha frappcino 2-3 times a month. So usually cavities with her. Meanwhile, H can put away 5 or 6 regular full sweetened Cokes a DAy and come back with clean dental appt. after appt., brushes his teeth only once a day, and NEVER gets cavities or any tooth problems. Just not fair.

H cannot understand why both daughter & I have HUGE, TREMENDOUS dental anxiety.

@Nammu - I can understand not being able to pay for dental procedures. My sisters and I had dental problems as children and my dad was self-employed, we lived paycheck-to-paycheck and money was tight. We lived in a small town, everybody knew every body. The dentist had actually gone to undergraduate school with my father. They had different majors but roomed together in an apartment of 4 guys. My dad had a business fixing up electronics and mechanics, worked on the dentist's car from time to time. The dentist was very understanding and let my mom pay dental bills in installments she could afford. Even as my mom got older and need thing like root canals for herself (she neglected her dental care while my sisters and I grew up), she was able to pay on installment until he recently retired.

Now I ow $400 for this next crown (this is with the dental insurance paying half) and the most they will let me break it up here is 2 payments of $200 and the time services are rendered.

Man, at this rate, I'm going to have dental anxiety for a WEEK. My daughter's anxiety for her appts. rubs off on me too.