A Dental-a-phobia

It takes a lot to really get me scared. I can hang with the best of them when it comes to the scariest of films or even going through haunted houses (although I have not done that since high school and I prefer not to have random strangers grabbing at me or chasing me). BUT there is one thing that really frightens me and that is the DENTIST. No, I don't have any horrific story from the chair or bad experience that would justify my fear...I just don't like the dentist. I have been blessed with my mother's good teeth and other than a few cavities as a child, I have not had any dental issues/emergencies. That was until this weekend....

Let me start at the beginning, when I went to my 6 mos. cleaning in December, they discovered that one of my top molars had a small piece of the tooth missing. The dentist said that overall I had beautiful, healthy teeth and that this was just an isolated incident. The plan of action was to schedule an appointment to fix it which I made for Feb. 5th. Sadly, I came down with the flu and had to reschedule my appointment for March. Then, last Wednesday I woke up with a tooth ache...nothing unbearable just uncomfortable and with any ache and pain you take some Advil. Well, the pain was persistant and by Friday no amount of Advil would even cause the slightest relief from the pain/pressure I was feeling on both the top/bottom of the right side of my mouth. Now I have a pretty high tolerance for pain/discomfort but this is ridiculous. I knew that unless it magically disappeared (which was not realistic) I would be calling the dentist first thing this morning. Which is exactly what I had to do....my resolve to battle this pain was dwindling. So they were great enough to get me in this morning and after a quick x-ray the results were in and those two words were uttered to me "ROOT CANAL". I probably would have had a some type of dramatic reaction had I not been in so much pain. They do not do them in this office and thankfully they were able to find me an appointment for this afternoon so within the hour I will be ending my work day early and going back to the dental chair. Of course, no one would call having a root canal fun and as much as I strongly fear the dentist, I will do just about anything to alleviate this horrible pain/pressure from my mouth. My dentist also gave me a prescription for Lortab to help manage the pain so there is a good chance that the rest of my day might be a blur.

Wow...what a way to spend a Monday......