Hi pennye,

Thank you for the kind words I gave you a lot of information and I'm glad it was helpful to you!

Many times the dentists do not offer a whole lot of information to their patients. That's because there are time restraints for each appointment and there can be many details tied to dental treatment. There is also some hesitation in offering too many details to the patient for fear of scaring the patient out of doing necessary dentistry.

I believe every patient has the right to be properly informed about their proposed dental work and the options available to them. The same goes true for the financial aspect as well.

I think it would be very helpful if every dental office hired a patient advocate who is educated and experienced in dentistry to discuss the details with their patients. But many dental offices just expect or assign this task to a staff member or an office manager and it really needs to be specifically designated to one or two people depending on the size of the practice. What do you think about that idea??

Regarding your fear...... please know that it is real and very valid. Fear is a very powerful emotion and one that is felt by many people when they are in the dental chair.... including those in the dental field!! Nobody likes it, believe me. Tooth cleaning is one that is especially avoided if you've had a painful experience when having your teeth cleaned. I completely understand. So please know that you are not alone in feeling this way.

It's important to keep in mind that avoidance is not the answer because then the problems tend to get bigger. To deal with things before that happens allows us to free up the fear that is actually blocking so much of our control. So we have to try different things to help put us in calmer state. If we can feel in control at least to a point, we can get through the fear.

There are several different things you can do to feel less anxious about seeing the dentist..........

One is to know the treatment and financial plan ahead of time.

Two is to be compliant with your appointments and if needed come in a few times to have different areas of your mouth numbed and cleaned if you cannot handle doing the entire mouth at one appointment. Inform the dentist that you are afraid because you associate dental work (including cleanings) with pain and do not want to be in pain in the dental chair... not even for a cleaning. I know this sounds stupid but remember ....the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

Three is be prepared to bring an ipad or headphones with a cd for you to listen to. This helps A LOT to distract your mind while in the chair.

Four, you could pre medicate with valium or xanax prior to your appointments. This will certainly take the edge off.

You can only expect the dentist to take care of you, if you allow him to do that. It is his obligation to inform you, keep you comfortable and provide quality work. The rest is up to you. Never be afraid to ask questions or tell the dentist that you don't understand something.

The time it takes to replace a filling with another filling depends on the location of the tooth and the size of the filling. Generally it is about an hour. A crown prep is about 90 minutes or less.

If you were using an electric toothbrush, why did you stop? Do you feel more comfortable with the manual brush?

The neck and jaw are in close relation to each other. Often what affects one will affect the other.

Bryanna