Dentist hell

I am growing to hate dentists.

1. When I was young, single figures, I was given gas to have some teeth removed. Apparently I woke up in a pool of blood. I also smelt the gas for years afterwards.
2. Whilst in secondary school aged 15 I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. At the time I was pretty ill and had had several weeks off school. I returned on a Monday and this was in the days when dentists visited schools – so I had to go that morning. I needed a tooth taken out. However the dentists had a bit of trouble removing it, and ended up putting her knee on my chest to try and pull it out! I was so physically drained by it all that I needed a further few days off school!
3. After going to the dentist I was walking back to my motorbike to go home when I met a friend – ‘You don’t look good’ she said – but I didn’t think to much of it. After I got home however I discovered that the swelling in my cheek was not as natural as I first thought. The dentist had left in several cotton pads. I’m very relieved that I didn’t swallow them when riding home!
4. A visit to the dentist for a checkup was all going well until he started to polish my teeth. He was using an attachment on the air hose (same as used for the drill) but the connection was faulty and they flew apart whilst inside my mouth. Of course he stopped straight away, but I didn’t realise how bad things were until I got home – I was a s white as a sheet after that!

5. Pain – yep toothache had started so I rang my dentist only to be informed that he wasn’t going to be about until February. I would have to use the (not so) local dental emergency centre. I ring up, make an appointment for later in the day. Once there he takes a look and offers me a choice of extraction, or temporary filling. At first I choose the temporary filling, but changed my mind to extraction when I realised what I’d then have to try and do – plus with the state of my teeth it could be problematical. 2 injections later I go back in and he starts – I yelp in pain. He then gives me 2 more injections and starts to extract again. I scream. Agonising pain but now he’s started he can’t stop. They close the door as my screams of agony reverberate around the building.

   My screams continued all through the extraction, the pain was unbelievable. Of course this jogged my memory and once before I’d needed more than the standard dose – why oh why didn’t I remember that before! After it was done I laid there for a few minutes to recover, the pain eased as soon as he’d finished. I’m given a set of instructions about how to look after it for a few days and off I go home. It was only once I got back home that I found something out that still has me terrified now – the tooth he extracted was not the one I thought he was extracting. I thought I’d identified the tooth that was causing the pain as being the third tooth in, he extracted the third tooth from the back…

   Until the pain I have from the extraction dies away I can’t tell if the pain I went in with has gone – I just hope it has! I really hope it has because I don’t want to go to the dentist again, at all, ever.