Thanks,

When I get up the courage, I shall go and look it up on the dentistry forum.

I'm facing an appointment sometime in April. Even though I have the nicest, kindest and most important, he's a phobia dentist, I STILL AM SCARED TO DEATH. This guy uses the wand (he was one of the team who discovered the Wand). This guy is one of the top cosmetic dentists in NYC who happens to be a phobia specialist. Couldn't have gone to him otherwise.

We did emails before I walked in the door. That was Christmas week of 2005. My whole family met me there. There, in the waiting room, were my inlaws (they know my phobia and because I take such good care of Alan, they are very appreciative of what I go through just to walk in the door of a dentist's office".
So there they were drinking herbal teas, and coffees, a very relaxed atmosphere, and Alan and I walk in, I'm white as a ghost, the staff couldn't have been kinder. It was only SUPPOSED TO BE FOR A CONSULT. I knew this, I knew nothing was going to be done, but just BEING there was enough to make me take a xanax before. So I finally am called in and I said to everybody, "thank god I made a will". We all laughed. It broke the ice. I go into the room and they roll this computer over to my chair and I go "what on earth is that?" and they go, "oh, haven't you heard, we don't use the old fashioned x-ray cardboard method anymore, this is digital" and with that, he pops a probe in my mouth, moves it around, and in 30 seconds, all my teeth show up on a laptop. Could have knocked me off my feet. I just looked. Since I take extremely good care of my teeth flossing, etc.) and never eat sugar, I was ahead of the game. But the reason I was there was that I had a broken tooth and I needed two crowns.

So there I am thinking "oh well, they are not going to touch me today, I begin to breath easier and then this adorable young dentist comes over to me and goes "melody, guess what, I had a cancellation, I am going to do your two crowns today, you'll come back in two weeks for a cleaning and get your permanent crowns".

I look at him like he's out of his mind and I go "Aha, no you can't, I have mitral valve prolapse and I need to be on antibiotics". He replies: "Aha, here they are" and he opens his hands and there are some antibiotics. I just looked at him. You see we had been e-mailing each other for two weeks, he had my whole history.

So I sat in his chair for 90 minutes. He used the wand. You don't feel a thing. They could not have been nicer. You should have seen the look on Alan's face and his sister and brother-in-law when I come running out later, going "Look, I have two new teeth" (they were on the side of my mouth). And Alan said "You've got to be kidding, you let them work on you, and YOU'RE ALRIGHT"????. I was able to laugh BECAUSE IT WAS NOW BEHIND ME.

So I have been to him twice since (for cleanings). It's been 9 months since I've been back. I'm overdue. I have spoken to the office, they are very kind and compassionate and the dentist's sister is even working in the office and she called me and put me at east.

Let me make one think perfectly clear. When you have a phobia, people can put you at ease, you can tell yourself "oh they use all the latest equipment,etc. etc. blah blah". It's a phobia, that means, it's an illogical fear of something. In my case, it's dentistry. Any kind of dentistry. And we even know WHY!!!

As I explained to my phobia dentist, when I was 5, my mother took me with her to Calahan and Cooley in Brooklyn, NY. (see I even remember the name of the place she took me). This was her appointment not mine. I had never even heard of a dentist. Well, she had to have all her teeth extracted that day.
No one thought that a little girl should not be exposed to such things. There I was (I remember it like it was yesterday, sitting on that brown bench in the waiting room) with my Aunt Lucy. My mother gets all her teeth extracted and they cauterized her gums. She walks into the waiting room and she's banging on the walls. Over and over, banging on the walls. I will never forget that. I told that to my new phobia dentist and he just shook his head and said "oh my god, that traumatized you for life". See, just because we know why, it has NOTHING TO DO WITH APPREHENSION, FEARS, whatever!!

It is what it is!!!. That is why, since I found my phobia guy, I go on Dental forums and find phobia dentists for people (I have found dentists as far away as England). I know what these people are going through.

It's hell to be controlled by any fear. Let alone a fear that can affect your oral health. So I am getting up my courage and I'll take my half a xanax before I get there, but I am determined to go in April. I have no choice, if I want to maintain my oral health.

I'm not trying to change this thread from a PN thread to a dentistry thread, but now you guys know a bit more about me.

Imagine that little 5 year old on the brown bench. I still relive that.

Melody