Melody,

I completely understand your fear of going to the dentist!! I had some of the worst experiences in the dental chair when I was a kid. To this day my family asks me how the heck I ended up in this profession and for so long!! The reason.... very simple..... to help people like ourselves who truly HATE going to the dentist =)

As a young girl, my dentist did not give novocaine shots for fillings. Nope. He just instructed me to hold on to the chair and be quiet! Can you believe that... today that would be considered abuse!! I just sat there in pain sweating bullets the whole time. The first time I had an anesthetic was when I was 13 years old and I broke my upper second molar on a piece of hard candy and the tooth had to be removed. I was petrified to get the novocaine injection and then after I got it...... I was so glad that he didn't give them for fillings because it hurt like heck!!! As if my day wasn't going bad enough... he couldn't remove the entire tooth so I ended up being an emergency patient at a nearby oral surgeons office to get the rest of it out. In those days, the surgeons had you breathe Ether to knock you out. Oh Lord, I was so sick afterwards. Yup, that day left a lasting impression in my brain.

So yea..... I can relate to dental fear big time!! I too need to face my fears as you do and learn as much as possible ahead of time. It makes me feel empowered if I have some understanding of what is going on and it does lessen the trauma somewhat. I am also fortunate that I now have a great dentist (a former employer) that I trust completely.

Mel, thanks for sharing your stories here.... they're great!

Bryanna