Dental phobia - root canal treatment

[Onlyinanemergency]

I have a severe dental phobia and have been suffering from toothache. I saw the dentist a few weeks ago, which was extremely anxiety provoking in itself, and he said I would need root canal treatment. I was very upset at the news so he suggested I get the treatment done at the dental centre as they could offer sedation. I agreed, however when I got an appointment letter through it said it would be a 9 month wait just for the initial consultation appointment. The toothache is getting worse so I don't think I can wait that long. Any advice?

Please try not to worry.
I've had all manner of procedures done in my mouth and root canal was no where near as bad as I thought it would be.
The most painful part is the initial injection into the gum, this cannot be avoided so try to brace yourself and relax as much as possible, yes it seems frightening, I felt the same, but the relief once the work is done is amazing.
You will feel dentist prodding and poking and it is slightly uncomfortable but you won't feel Any pain as such.
Best of luck, imagine how nice it is going to be to be rid of the pain!
Ps if the anxiety is as bad as you say do u not think it might be wise to take a friend for support?

Thanks for replying. to be honest, it's not so much a fear of the pain, although the jag is unpleasant I know the pain doesn't last long. It's a phobia from childhood and so it's no longer at all rational! I get to the dentist surgery and my heart begins to race before I am even in the chair. Once the dentist begins looking in my mouth, the fear increases and by the time the drill starts I am crying. I shake and cry for the rest of the procedure. If the procedure lasts long enough, I can have a panic attack, particularly when my jaw starts to feel stiff.

I wondered about asking the dentist about listening to music or an audiobook on headphones as a distraction but don't know if that's a ridiculous idea.

Whereabouts are you? Is it private or NHS?

Absolutely take audiobook/music. If the noise of what they’re doing is part of it you could use those noise cancelling headphones. My current dentist who did my root canals is fab and they do sedation as well.

Nine months is a long wait, can you request a one off prescription of a sedative from the G.P. to get you through the procedure. ?

A short course of counselling with a therapist qualified to specialise in treating PTSD may be really useful, OP. They would ideally do some short term desensitizing work with you to prepare you for the treatment experience and then de-brief with you afterwards. The counselling directory website would be a place to start looking for someone suitable in or near your area. I realise it seems costly but if they help you properly you'll make a lot of headway with your phobia and that would constitute a long term investment.

I totally sympathise, have been where you are. Another option might be for your dentist to refer you to a hospital psychologist specialising in oral medicine. Hopefully that would get you seen long before 9 months goes by.

All the suggestions others have made here are sound, they echo ways of coping that I've used in the last few years.

Handhold anytime and some

Maybe have a chat with the dentist to see if it would affect the procedure to have something like rescue remedy or calm tablets?

Will the dentist also do the whole root canal on one appointment? I'm with an nhs dentist and they wouldn't. I ended up having my tooth pulled as they done part of it then wouldn't fit me in for the rest of it for months and it failed so instead of going through the pain cycle again I had it pulled which was a much better experience for me

The noise is a big part of it, so if it isn't a silly suggestion I think I'll try the audiobook/music. It is an NHS dentist and they don't do sedation. I'm still breastfeeding too, so not sure there's even anything I can take from GP. I think counselling will be necessary in the future but it's not really practical/affordable right now. The root canal has to be done over 2 appointments, one to drill and clean out, and one to do the crown. Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply.

Listening to some music is not a silly idea at all. I had a root canal a few years ago and my dentist thought listening to music was a great idea, because it meant he didn’t have to come up with lots of small talk to keep me calm! And for me it made a massive difference, because like you, it’s not the pain that’s the problem, it’s the noise.

I also got a prescription for a single dose of diazepam from my dentist, which helped a lot. I think most dentists are highly aware of dental phobias, and I found that just explaining to my dentist what it is that makes me anxious made things a lot easier.

Good luck!

If can afford it, look at going private and getting sedation, I have terrible dental phobia but had a lot of work carried out under sedation, it is amazing stuff.

I actually got a tooth pulled about 15 years ago under sedation. I was living somewhere different and it was available from the regular dentist. I was actually supposed to have root canal treatment that time but I knew I wouldn't be able to do it so I insisted they just took out the tooth. I don't know what kind of sedation I had, but I was not totally asleep and it was quite unpleasant. I kept trying to push the dentist off me, not understanding what was happening, and didn't seem to have any strength. So I'm not even really sure sedation is the answer. I have used beta blockers in the past for fillings and they do help a bit. I'm not sure about diazepam and breastfeeding but I could certainly ask the GP. I'd really rather not lose this tooth as it's right next to the one I already got pulled and have a large gap there.