u/Sure_Company_6324

Does anyone else get this sensation or is it just me (itll just be me and im opening myself up for ridicule and abuse).

Im just morbidly waiting for the day the needles and drills are coming. No amount of pointless hygiene appointments, pats on the back saying your brushing is good, nothing will stop those needles and drills that will have to come one day.

All just feels so sad to the point where i question why i even go anymore. All just seems one stress inducing misery.

I know im unpopular on this forum and in life. But all I ever see is people who had dental phobias start going to the dentist, and something magical happens and they all of a sudden become proud of themself and like some sort of mythical weight has been lifted off them.

I dont get it.

Ive been back to the dentist 4 times now at 6 month intervals, going again late August. Im no healthier. Im no happier. Im no less anxious about going.

In fact its the total opposite, i hate going. I feel like every time i go i just sit there for the moment they say we need to put a needle in you. If they say the check up means no treatment is needed, i dont feel any happier. i just feel like its delayed the needle for 6 months. And then i count the next 6 months down literally 5 mins after the appointment finishes.

I just dont even get it, and ill get tons of people who will patronise me, take the piss out of me and whatever for standing up for myself and saying it. My life is getting WORSE for going to the dentist, not better.

The only thing going to the dentist has given me, after about a decade of being perfectly fine and happy, is a reason to be anxious, angry and upset, every single day.

Will this ever end and will I ever be like the normal people here who seem to hold dentists up as deities? Its a conflict i cant be bothered with anymore, forcing myself to go to appointments I dont want to go to just to feel some moral sense of doing the right thing, when Id be happier not going.

Thank you

Simple question; how many needles and drills does an average person have to endure in their lifetime of dentistry?

I suppose thats the ultimate goal of exposure therapy really? Have that many needles and drills shoved into you constantly, you couldnt care less anymore?

For context, im phobic, i hate dentistry, and that hate will stay forever.

Short question, but why do people do this, whats to gain out of lying that dentistry is painless?

You absolutely CAN feel whats going on, you DO feel needle pain with your injections, you just DO.

Why are people so determined to try and pretend you dont feel the needless, the vibrations, the awful sounds, and the obvious twinges of pain you get throughout your treatment.

I know im going to get patronised for my feelings but im prepared to accept that

Hello Everyone

Id like to ask how much pain should you consider reasonable rom an injection before you can say it was done badly or you were handled badly?

Or do you just have to accept if you got numb the dentist did their job.

I had an injection a couple of weeks ago and maybe being a phobic i was just trying to kid myself with all the stories of it being painless to make myself feel better.

The injection (and the treatment after, but focusing on the injection) was absolutely NOT painless, so please dont suggest something ive just experienced for myself is. Ive just felt it and it isnt.

How much pain is legitimately "normal" to put up with?

Thank you

Hello Everyone

I dont mind if you call me an idiot for this thinking, but id like you to constructively change my mind about this.

I am dentist phobic, so that forms part of the opinion, but i am absolutely not prepared to keep going to the dentist, and i will explain why.

What I object to, is this notion that "you cant tell if something is wrong" or "just because you are in no pain, that doesnt mean something isnt wrong".

My take on this is, I am not prepared to live in a constant fear that there is something wrong with me, that i cant feel, causes me no problem, and no one else notices, yet I have to visit a dentist FOREVER to keep having this confirmed to me.

I dont understand this logic whatsoever. Why are you giving me a reason to be upset, when without your checkups and the constant cycle of fear you are implanting in me (and everyone) id be perfectly fine going about my life.

I do not want a needle and a drill in my mouth, end of discussion. I dont want a needle and a drill to repair something so small and puney its making no difference to my life.

Obviously if it gets worse, THEN it WILL start to hurt. Ok fine, at that point the needle and the drill is a horrible, but worthwhile thing to endure, because it is going to stop the pain im feeling.

Why do I want a little filling, thats going to become another filling anyway, and then worse? at the very least im skipping some of the needles, why is this a problem?

I dont understand why I should be subjected TO pain, to "fix" something that is not affecting me in the slightest?

What comeback have I got to the dentist either? if i go for a checkup, and he says oh look something is wrong with you.....that i cant see, or feel, or affects me in any way, but he is saying is definitely definitely there, whats stopping him saying that loads of times? why is he right? makes no sense to me im sorry.

I think the number one thing that no one seems to grasp, no matter how hard i try, is going to these dental check up appointments is bleeding over into other parts of my life where the tradeoff of him/her saying "your teeth are ok" is totally NOT worth the tradeoff of all the induced worry, all the feeling sick, all the horrid anxiety, all the pulling out of social activities, all the loss of focus at work, all the not wanting to eat before every single hygiene and checkup appointment comes around.

If those were gone, my life AS A WHOLE would get SIGNIFICANTLY better. I dont want to pay lots of money to visit a therapist to make me feel happy at the prospect of being needled and drilled. I just want to not go, and be a happy human being!

I understand the hygiene appointments help, and i want to go to those. that DOESNT involve power tools and needles, thats fine.

But i went about 10-12 years without seeing a dentist, nothing was wrong with me, i was happy as larry.

Now by being a responsible adult and sticking to 6 month check ups, i had a filling which i absolutely HATED, i live in a constant state of hoping i dont have another one, a constant state of ticking down the days, every day, to going to the dentist again, a constant state of "well , something MIGHT be wrong with you" that i never cared about before.

Like what is the ACTUAL POINT?

Just to recap, if i feel pain, then yes i will go, i want to be out of the pain.

But im never in pain in the first place!!!!! so leave me alone!!!!!

Am i just a lost cause?

Hello Everyone

The more I think about this logical and reasonable statement, the more I have a big problem with it.

If you dont have any pain, any unusual appearance that would bother you or others, but "there might be something wrong", you are submitting your entire life to the mercy of the dentist, 6 months at a time, forever, to continue to tell you things are wrong that are causing you absolutely no problems.

You might say well, theyre preventing the problem before it gets worse. Are they?? your little filling just becomes a bigger filling anyway. then it becomes a crown anyway. So whats the point? nothing has ever hurt you and yet youre sat there getting filled more than once, or worse.

Im experiencing no pain or NOTHING im bothered about, and yet youre going to subject me TO pain by putting a needle in my gum multiple times, then drill or extract my teeth. Why exactly????

If something IS bothering me, and the needles and drills are to get me OUT of that situation, yeah ok that seems justifiable. I get that.

But if i feel no pain whatsoever, the "problem" doesnt end at that one filling you give me, i need treatment over and over and over, so whats the point?

In summary, what I dont like is; my entire life has to be spent, every 6 months at a time, telling me things that i cant feel or dont care about need fixing. So FOR ME (I appreciate its not everyone), the dentist keeps my entire life in a 6 month doom loop of ALWAYS having to rely on you telling me im either fine, or im not fine.

If it wasnt like this, a significant worry would be removed forever. If we just accepted that if we are happy and dont feel any pain we are ok, and if we do feel pain we need it fixed.....what exactly is wrong with this?

Because this would totally remove the stress and fear of thinking something might be wrong, every 6 months, for eternity.

The pointless all consuming doom loop would be cured, in an instant.

Every time i explain this thought, to anyone, im instantly dismissed as some sort of clown. its very sad.

I think its also ironic that the people who live at the dentist seem to have tons of fillings. whereas ive not been very often except for the last few years, and I have one filling....

Like....am I supposed to look at the people who religiously went to the dentist and have 10 fillings and look at them with envy??

Hello Everyone

Ive been forcing myself to go to dental appointments even though i hate them and im scared of every aspect of them. At the last checkup i got told i needed a filling and my heart sank. i spent week after week worrying about the day of getting the filling.

But a part of me saw it as a chance to set myself somewhat free from my phobia by facing my fear, experiencing it, everyone had said it is not as bad as i think itll be in my head, no pain is involved etc.

Ive had it done. I never want to go back every again.

Ive had two needles in my gums, its NOT painless, it stung for at least 10 seconds, and then i felt a huge jolt like electric shock when im assuming a nerve was hit which made me want to leap out of the chair right at the end of the injection.

I could feel all the vibrations, hear all the noises, to the point where the line between pain and pressure (as they call it) was indistinguishable. It felt and sounded disgusting. That putty stuff as well, just the look of it makes me want to throw up. I can still feel everything i had done, i relive it constantly. i can still smell the stench of those idiots latex gloves.

It absolutely was NOT painless, and it felt DISGUSTING.

The saddest thing is i was hoping it would be a release, that i would feel proud for facing my fear. I never want to face this shit again. I dont feel happy, i dont feel proud. I hated every moment of it, I hate the way youre lied to, treated, spoken to.

Am i mentally ill? why dont i feel proud like everyone else does?

I never want to go back and wouldnt care if i didnt. The whole experience has made me feel even worse.