Went in for a crown the other day. The dentist got called away to a different patient midway through. Anesthesia started wearing off. Dentist took her time with the other patient. I was fairly tensed up by the time she got back. I was doing my best to balance being polite with limiting how much the pain affected me. The longer she was gone, the less I was able to pretend I wasn’t in pain. My strategy for pain management is tensing inwards, and I hadn’t raised my voice or cursed. I was waiting for my turn.
A friend who works there later told me that the dentist said I scared her and she thought I was going to harm her. I can’t seem to make sense of that. I can’t think of what threatening behavior I displayed, unless dentists getting attacked by patients is just a thing they have to deal with.
I fully believe the dental profession attracts a lot of sadists and freaks. Truly, I have had some horiffic experiences.
I think the previous generations were conditioned to accept it, because the technology and techniques were much more uncomfortable. My parents are impressed as long as the dentist isn’t intentionally injuring them, lol.
The best thing I did was switch to a practice for people with dental phobia, and they literally don’t do anything special except be very gentle, and make sure you’re well anesthesized, and communicate everything, and check in with you frequently, and give plenty of breaks. Like every dentist should do.
People should feel free to be picky about what kind of dentist they see! You can actually have comfortable dental procedures these days!
My dentist is great, could almost fall asleep. Took me 20 years between seeing one and it was only because i broke a tooth and had to do something about it. Glad i did. Wish i had gone sooner. If only for a cleaning
They doing a local or general anesthesia?
I’ve only needed local anesthesia so far, but they also do general anesthesia there.