Come and use your powers of persuasion to make me book a dentist's appointment

[BloodshotEyeballsintheScarySky]

I'm shit scared, really, terrified, phobic, not just a slight dislike to it. I haven't been in over 20 years. I need everything doing, root canal, fillings, bridges, crowns, bleaching. It will take years to put right and thousands of pounds.

BUT, I now have DD and she is teething and her little white teeth are appearing, all perfect. I want her to have lovely teeth, and if DH takes her every time, she's eventually ask why I don't go. And I really don't want her to have a phobia, it's not fair to her if I can avoid her feeling like I feel. And I'm frightened mine will fall out one day in the near future.

So, I want to make an appointment with DH's dentist. If I can get there for a consultation, he can tell me exactly what I need doing and roughly how much it will cost. I will put it on the mortgage if necessary just to get it done. I really want to go, really really. But this is all in theory. Picking up the phone is a different thing. So please persuade me to do it.

an excellent idea. come back and tell us how yuo get on.

Bloodshot - I have never made the appt myself - no way could I pick up the phone. I have never gone on my own either.
Make sure your DH sorts it all out and has time to help you through it. As the others have said, it is likely to be better than you think in terms of treatment, but tbh that isn't so much of a problem as getting you there in the first place!

Appointment made for next month. DH will be there to hold vodka bottle provide moral support and DD will be farmed out to grandmas.

Well done!
(I get my dp to book for me, make the childcare arrangements, and only tell me the night before so I don't fret for too long )

Are you going to go to your GP too? It can't do any harm as long as you don't have to look after your DD on your own afterwards.

Best of luck

Sorry to hijack but been watching this thread with interest as I too am a complete phobic when it comes to Dentists.

My GP prescribed beta-blockers but I havent used them yet .

I really really need to book an appointment - will the betablockers work? Calm me down?

Go! Or you will end up looking like this!

Have you considered hypnotherapy or accupuncture to help with the phobia?

Well done for booking! Get DH to take you for a nice lunch as a reward afterwards. Much better than the stickers they hand out at the dentist.

Oh FFS Lil. Where the hell did you get that picture of me? Bloody Facebook...

Tequila, if I have to go, you have to go. Look at Lil's picture. That's what my dentist (can't believe I wrote that!) will have to deal with! We can hold hands and be our own support group.

My teeth are crumbling away, theres holes everywhere

The longer you leave it the harder it is to go, but reading this thread has made me determined to book an appointment.

The only thing is that I have to go to the Dental Hospital as the dentists local to me are either full of NHS patients already, or refuse to treat me

I'll hold your hand if you'll hold mine

So are mine Tequila. I've lost one completely at the back at the one next to it has shifted round so that the biting surface is facing inwards and I'm biting on the side of it. Others are crumbling. I always thought that as long as it was only the back teeth I didn't really care but now I'm worried about the front ones.

I'm having to go private as there is no hope of an NHS one. Maybe they'll see the work needed and send me to the dental hospital. I'm looking at thousands, easily.

Can't you go to the Dental Hospital anyway? Ours is a training hospital so they don't charge anyway!

The reason I always have to go there is because I am so scared, I hyperventilate and end up needing oxygen . It sounds and looks so stupid written down but I can't help it, I don't know what happens to me, it's like I lose control and my body just takes over

I will hold your hands - it's only through MN hand-holding that I have got to where I am! If I can be honest, the hardest part was making the appt but once I was there and the dentist was so nice, it was so much easier.
I too had filled my head with ideas that I would need thousands of pounds worth of treatment.
go on, you can do it. And remember, you can go for the check up and then plan out what treatment might be a priority, both health wise and financially.
oh, and don''t underestimate how useful it is to take something before, I highly recommend it. My GP gave me diazepam, and even the thought that I had taken something that WOULD calm me down made me calm, IYSWIM!

good luck

Thank you! Luuurve the new name btw I'm definitely going to the docs beforehand. I've got a really good GP who knows I'm a headcase at the best of times so she should be able and willing to give me something.

In a perverse sort of way I'm almost looking forward to it. I was always so jealous anytime anyone said they were going to be late into work because they were going to the dentist. It seemed/seems like another world to me that I'm not part of.

DO come back to us and let us know how you get on.