Dentist Phobia -(Not For The Squeamish!) - Any Idea?

[andy-hughes]

For years I had a serious phobia about dentists, and required tranquilising to be able to enter the building, never mind up the stairs, into the surgery, and then sit in the chair.

Eighteen years afgo, I had an appointment, and my wife called to say she could not collect our youngest from school, which meant that i could not have my tranquilisers and drive the car, so i attended the dentist withou them, and was fine.

No problems, no more sedation for the intervening eighteen years, inlcuding a couple of root canal fillings.

Today, I attended an emergecy appointment with another dentist at my usucal practice - my dentist was booked up. I was advised that I had a fractured tooth which needed urgent extraction, so I agreed to have it done there and then.

With no feeling or fear or panic, i advised that i felt faint, and when i woke up, I found that I had vomited and gone into shock - I awoke with the proverbial crowd around me - various nurses and my own dentist from next door.

So - given that my conscious mind has no problem with the dentist, I am intrigued by my reaction - any theories?

[pixie373]

Did you have a local anaesthetic? I have known people to go into shock from that.

[boxtops]

I go very peculiar if I have more than 2 injections on a visit - thank goodness they were up to speed with their anaphylaxis training. Arey you OK now?

[Sqad]

Well, that was certainly what is known as a vasovagal attack....fainting.

What was the cause? No idea...but try the effect of hot weather and possibly a degree of dehydration to spark it off.

[jno]

ouch! Like you, I also overcame dental phobia by just doing it... I'd hate to think it would all return. But it does sound as if Sqad's hit the mark there: if you weren't feeling panicky, then phobia's not likely to be the reason, and heat could well be.

[andy-hughes]

Interesting pixie - I had four separate injections - that may be the reason for the mind's exit stage left.

[andy-hughes]

Looking back, the surgery was warm, I recall the dentist offering to switch on the air con, which suggests that it was a warm room.

[Hopkirk]

Mnay years ago I decided to try contact lenses.

The optician used hard lenses (I don't know if you can get them any more)

He put one in, and I struggled and blinked like mad, then he popped the second in.

I fainted.

When I came to, he had taken them out. I would love to have seen a film of him doing that.

[flump1]

I hope you are recovered now Andy, the subconscious mind is a beast.

[Octavius]

I would have plumped for dehydration and probably the sometimes overwhelming and nauteous aromas that exist in dental surgeries.

[andy-hughes]

Thanks for your kind words folks - I am fully recovered now.

A (slow!)drive home - a shower and a hot cup of tea followed by an hour's sleep and i am right as rain.

I have to return for a treatment review - the tooth root is still in place and will be drilled for extraction - i think I may opt for a hospital visit and a general knock-out to avoid a repeat performance.

[ummmm]

Andy - have you mastered the art of not gagging when you brush your teeth yet?

[tamborine]

Had you eaten prior to sedation ?

Dentists usually finger-rub a freeze on gum before treatment, so its painless. I pinch my leg so my brain concentrates on that pain which I control; mind over matter, try it & dont be a woooossss ;)

[andy-hughes]

ummm - fancy you remembering that!

I have - mainly because after surgery to cure snoring which involved the removal of my tonisls and twenty-five percent of my soft palatte from either side to open my airway - i now have a gullet like the M6 and can swallow handfulls of pills when required.

This means that my ga reflex is nothing like as sensitive as it was, so with a little mind control, I manage to brush my teeth without gagging.

I must resign myself to the fact that I do not like have things stuck into my facial orifices. As part of the reliminary treatment before my tonsil surgery the doctor tried to put a micro-camera up my nose and down my throat to my stomach - I passed out then as well!!

Please don't bother with the jokes about not coming back as a gay man - I've heard them all already!

[douglas9401]

I had a similar experience years ago (without the vitamin volcano) when medics were trying to insert a canula into the back of my hand. It wasn't even what you could call painful but it took many little pricks (not you, staff) to get me connected.
I just put it down to my body feeling insulted by unusual sensations and closing down for a few seconds.
Good that you're okay. :)

[andy-hughes]

Hi tambo - yes I had eaten before, but just a bowl of cereal, probably not sufficient in hindsight.

As for being a wuss - that is irrelavent, I am perfectly capable of standing the initial pain of a local - but my mind's unwillingness to stay for the main performance is something over which i have no control whatsoever.

[Octavius]

I have had most of the nasty things done to my teeth over the years, despite hating dental procedures and pooping myself into a frenzy weeks before any appointment. I would say I have overcome it these days by just doing it, but also the sense that dentists have become more aware and responsive to phobia and dread than I remember from my youth.

I too retch sometimes when brushing my teeth.

[ummmm]

That's good. Someone suggested humming nursery rhymes and it actually works :-)

[tamborine]

I understood that you dont eat before sedation ?

[andy-hughes]

Not sure tambo - I thought that was just for a general, rather than a local?

[Sqad]

tambo....he didn't have sedation...he had local anaesthesia.