I find dentist visits extremely fucking triggery. Like, when I googled local dentists, I had to throttle down my panic reaction. Last dentist visit, I ended up triggered and shaking and unable to speak in a normal voice for a while.
So I think what would be best for me is dentistry under sedation.
Like I said, even googling and looking at websites has been freaking me out, so I'm hoping that y'all might have some recommendations. Does anyone have a really good dentist who might be reasonably trauma-aware and use sedation?
I cannot help you directly. I will say that I know it's not unheard of. A friend of mine with severe dental anxiety had her dentist proscribe something for her to take beforehand, because of it.
My little sister had to have a lot of dental stuff, up to and including gum grafts, when she was little. To help stave off panic attacks before she ever got to the building, the dentist gave her mild sedatives to take an hour or so before her appointment.
Dr Hegazi is kind, competent, gentle, and charming. His hygenists are also kind and gentle.
This is the only US dental practice I've been to that hasn't given me a ration of shit about my UK NHS dentistry (what was I supposed to do? I grew up in England, it's what we got.) or my dental phobia.
Because they've treated me so well, I've actually managed to keep going back for regular cleanings for over 3 years now. This is a first for me.
Dr. Karen Bright of Bright Dental is very kind and very concerned about pain control. I also understand she's excellent for working things out if one does not have dental insurance. She's the only dentist I've ever had who has actually managed to cope with my weird nerve wiring and get me completely numb for work.
I know she doesn't use gas, but she may work with sedation, I've never asked. I do know she's got a lot of kids who come to her, and I've heard her work with them and she's pretty awesome at dealing with their anxiety. I think she would be very straightforward and practical as to whether she thought she could work with you, given your severe anxiety.
I'm afraid I can't help you, but I'm wondering how dentistry under sedation works -- are patients allowed to have a "friend" with them, to witness the procedure so that nothing hinky goes on?
Good luck with everything. I know how much that freaks you out. *sends mental vibes of strength*
You might want to give Smiles By Rosie over in Somerville a call. Rosie is part of the larger social circle you and I walk in, and I believe she would do her best to work with you. Frankly, I'd be shocked if she didn't.
There was a dentist in my town, or so the person said it was in my town, who did relaxation dentistry using sound to mimic the sort of relaxation state you get under sedation w/o the chemicals in your body. I'll keep looking.
If you're currently registered with a dentist, you can ask them for recommendations. They tend to know other dentists to refer people to. (You can get someone to call the office to ask this for you!)
The last dentist I went to to be put under was in upstate NY, so I'm not much help there.
I'm afraid my awesome dentist is in north Dallas, so not much use, but I do recommend one of the things my sister and I have found helpful. Since one of the triggers we associate with the dentist's office is the smell, putting a little perfume under your nose can help block it. She also adds a specifically-made playlist and a stuffed animal to help her relax until the sedation kicks in, but some people may have more concern for their dignity than that, I dunno. And I go with and sit in the waiting room the entire time she's there.
If you don't find a good local option and a 2hr. drive is acceptable to get what you need, ping me for my dentist's contact information. They work with my own issues very well, and the last time I was in, they paired me with an assistant who has firsthand experience with anxiety in the chair. I do not know if they sedate, but can find out easily enough.
My dentist is Dr. Geoffrey Davis in Copley Square, and I've always liked him, but I have no idea if he uses sedation or not. Should I try to find out for you?
(Around 10 years ago, he used to take out ads in the local LGBT papers during Pride season featuring a photo of him in his leathers, arms folded, with the caption "Wouldn't you rather have ME in your mouth?" I have one of these clipped out & posted on my fridge, FWIW. :-) I asked him once if the ads got him more business, and he said yes; the only downside was that sometimes people were disappointed that he was wearing his scrubs while working on their teeth, and not his leathers!)
"We write to discover what we believe." ~~Jonathan Carroll
"...part of you pours out of me in these lines from time to time." ~~"Case of You", Joni Mitchell
"There is a crack in everything; that's how the light gets in." ~~"Anthem", Leonard Cohen
"If you wanna be immortal, you gotta have something to trade in." ~~"Anything", Foetus
"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy." ~~George Bernard Shaw
"The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of you can make of it whatever you wish." ~~Terence McKenna
"When we die, we will turn into songs, and we will hear each other and remember each other." ~~Rob Sheffield
"I have a sickness in the brain. I'm allowed to make no sense to you puny mortals with your fully operational head-meat." ~~Spider Jerusalem
"Sometimes you crash. Sometimes, the fall kills you. And sometimes... sometimes, you fly." ~~Neil Gaiman
"Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself." ~~Lois McMaster Bujold
"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal." ~~Albert Camus
"Being able to speak the unspeakable is very powerful. If we can hear another person express where they get stuck, or lost, or repeat a negative pattern, it builds a bridge." ~~SARK
"Myths and legends die hard in America." ~~Hunter S. Thompson
"Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible." ~~Edwin Land
"Having faced the fire of your initiation and survived its heat, you can now serve others in a whole new way. By being a living testimony to life transformed, you carry in your cells a sacred knowledge, and in your mind and heart a sacred fire. It's not the fire of youth but the fire of Prometheus, who emerged with the light that would light the world. It's a light that you only could have gotten from having faced some version of your personal hell, and now you are inoculated to the fires which rage around us. Sometimes it is fire that puts out fire, and such is the fire that now burns in you. This is not the fire of your destruction but of your victory. It is the fire of the middle years." ~~Marianne Williamson
"Considering how common illness is, how tremendous the spiritual change it brings, how astonishing, when the lights of health go down, the undiscovered countries that are then disclosed…what ancient and obdurate oaks are uprooted in us by the act of sickness…it becomes strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love and battle and jealously among the prime themes of literature." ~~Virginia Woolf
"The Universe puts us in places were we can learn. They are never easy places, but they are right. Wherever we are is the right place, at the right time. The pain that sometimes comes is part of the process of constantly being born."
"I will tell you a great secret, Captain, perhaps the greatest secret of all time: The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make up this station, and the nebula outside - that burn inside the stars themselves. We are star-stuff. We are the Universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out. And, as we have both learned, sometimes the Universe requires a change of perspective." ~~Delenn, Babylon 5
"Light Leak", by SJ Tucker
Swirling stars into my skin With a leaky stolen pen Stories end, pull kenning in Let the light leak in I finally let the light leak in
I am kenning all I can She and I, me and my mind, Writing hard for the one true thing That lets you let me in Beguiling what must to gain the trust of the minutemen I am worth investing in and I never stop spinning.
Kenning yarns out of my skin With a leaky borrowed pen Swirling stars and stories in Will you let the light leak in?
Admired Smiles in Hingham.
http://www.admiredsmiles.com/sedation.html
Dr Hegazi is kind, competent, gentle, and charming. His hygenists are also kind and gentle.
This is the only US dental practice I've been to that hasn't given me a ration of shit about my UK NHS dentistry (what was I supposed to do? I grew up in England, it's what we got.) or my dental phobia.
Because they've treated me so well, I've actually managed to keep going back for regular cleanings for over 3 years now. This is a first for me.
I know she doesn't use gas, but she may work with sedation, I've never asked. I do know she's got a lot of kids who come to her, and I've heard her work with them and she's pretty awesome at dealing with their anxiety. I think she would be very straightforward and practical as to whether she thought she could work with you, given your severe anxiety.
Good luck with everything. I know how much that freaks you out. *sends mental vibes of strength*
The system is called http://www.nucalm.com/for-dental-professionals/nucalm-system.cfm
http://rwsdds.com/ the facebook page lists the nucalm
ETA: And here's a brand new post by someone whose needs may be similar to yours.
Edited at 2013-04-27 03:34 pm (UTC)
The last dentist I went to to be put under was in upstate NY, so I'm not much help there.
(Around 10 years ago, he used to take out ads in the local LGBT papers during Pride season featuring a photo of him in his leathers, arms folded, with the caption "Wouldn't you rather have ME in your mouth?" I have one of these clipped out & posted on my fridge, FWIW. :-) I asked him once if the ads got him more business, and he said yes; the only downside was that sometimes people were disappointed that he was wearing his scrubs while working on their teeth, and not his leathers!)