Bryanna, More than you know you have truley calmed my fears. Thank you so much the dentist didnt even give me what you have, you give so much to people on this site its so amazing for this I thank you so much. If you were me, and you were petrofied of the "chair", how do I talk myself into making the appt. for the fillings, I have had no work aside from a tooth extraction in 36 yrs and cleanings, prior to the extreme sensativity, its been 5 yrs since a cleaning please dont yell, the last 2 I had hurt those teeth so bad it left something in my brain saying oh no, whats the average time in the chair for a filling re-do? DO I have to get a crown? I know its better for the long run but the thought of sanding down my teeth to a nub kills me. My brother reminded me that the dentist we had at 10 yrs old was mean to kids, I think this is where the fear lays. And should I go back to using the sonic toothbrush? This new pain for the past week its not tooth pain more like gum/tmj pain at the same time, its hard to explain jaw is sore comes in waves, I also have been to the chiropractor and he has been doing neck cracking and traction for pinched nerve in neck, I was reading nerves from the neck can effect the jaw and teeth. Again thank you and I am going to do the salt tonight I for sure dont have the 2200 for 2 crowns I would have to save it for a bit. Thank you agian your awsome.......

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

Here is a pic of the teeth were talking about. I have made the cleaning for thursday afternoon, since I dont have insurance I am going to start with a regular cleaning and then hope the hygentist isnt trying to make the "chain" dentist more money and upsale me if its not absoulute needed. When I am there I will see if I can get a filling redo and hopefully buy some time for a crown, which I just dont want. Its amazing how I have been complaining for so long on these sensative teeth last 3 check ups were all clear when all along its gum disease. I was wondering why the sensative toothpaste was doing nothing at all, I changed brands 3 times, 3 tubes in a row and no relief. Just knowing its about the plaque made a huge difference in hoping I might get out of the sensativiy by getting cleaned more often, which will be fun...Again your awsome and please keep it coming you give us peace of mind and thanks again, I will shout out after thursday keep my fingers crossed the hygentist is good....

I have made the cleaning for thursday afternoon, since I dont have insurance I am going to start with a regular cleaning and then hope the hygentist isnt trying to make the "chain" dentist more money and upsale me if its not absoulute needed. When I am there I will see if I can get a filling redo and hopefully buy some time for a crown, which I just dont want. Its amazing how I have been complaining for so long on these sensative teeth last 3 check ups were all clear when all along its gum disease. I was wondering why the sensative toothpaste was doing nothing at all, I changed brands 3 times, 3 tubes in a row and no relief. Just knowing its about the plaque made a huge difference in hoping I might get out of the sensativiy by getting cleaned more often, which will be fun...Again your awsome and please keep it coming you give us peace of mind and thanks again, I will shout out after thursday keep my fingers crossed the hygentist is good....[/QUOTE]

Attached Images

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Hi Pennye,

Thank you for the picture but it does not show the gum line where the plaque would be accumulated. However it does show very large old mercury fillings. I can see why he recommended crowns on those two teeth. Replacing them with new large fillings will probably not help with sensitivity as it may make them more sensitive to cold. Filling materials are not meant to be used for such large fillings in the first place because the material fractures allowing bacteria and temperature to get in underneath. This holds true for mercury and composite filling material.

The first pre molar could probably get away with a new composite filling but the second pre molar filling is quite large. Depending on how deep this filling is would determine if a filling would be adequate or not.

Also, fairly often mercury fillings are very irritating to the gum tissue. So what happens is the gums start to recede away from the filling causing irritation and sensitivity. This also predisposes these areas to accumulate more plaque also. This could be part of what is happening in your case.

Bryanna


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Once Again, thank you so very much, what just erks me is you know that all the dentists who thought its just normal sensativity, not one ever explained how the fillings cause the sensativity and not one before the most recent visit ever said the word crown. Now I need to get that money together and get that done, at least I know I need one, I know how important plaque build up is to think I have been suffering with this sensativity all these years it is fixable, I though these tooth pastes just dont work...in the near future if you dont mind I am going to post the xrays of these teeth, one of the roots were so long she couldnt get it on the xray, she had to take the xray in my mouth said "were not supposed to do that" wondering for the future on that root. Thank you again

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Pennye,

Sure, post the xrays, that's fine.

Regarding toothpaste.... it is not the toothpaste that removes plaque,it is the mechanical technique of brushing that removes plaque. Toothpaste is just to temporarily freshen the breath... really nothing more.

Bryanna


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