I’ve had problems with one of my molars for quite some time. It has had a filling in it since I was a kid, and a few years ago the filling fell out, and the tooth broke. I finally got it treated when it was just too painful to stand. The dentist did a root canal treatment, but I’m not sure it worked. I never did go back to get a cap put on the tooth, and now the temporary tooth has fallen out and the tooth is infected again.
It sounds like I don’t care about my dental health, but I do. I am just really, really scared of going to the dentist. Every time I go it hurts like crazy, and the pain meds they give me never seem to work for me the way they do for everyone else. No matter how much Novocaine they give me, I can always feel what they are doing! I mention this because my dentist has told me that this tooth needs to come out, and I don’t think I am going to be able to handle it.
My question is, should I get an oral surgeon to do the extraction, because can’t they knock me all the way out? I don’t want to be awake at all while this tooth is being pulled.
Carson in Omaha
Dear Carson,
Dental anxiety so often results in situations like yours, and that is a real shame.
You need to locate a dentist who does sedation dentistry. This is a dentist who is trained and licensed to administer different levels of sedation. Depending on the level of your anxiety, a dentist can treat with nitrous oxide (also called laughing gas) or what is called conscious sedation. When a patient is under conscious sedation, they are not unconscious, but so deeply relaxed that most patients do not remember anything at all about their treatment. The key for you is to locate a sedation dentist so they can help you figure out what level of sedation will be necessary for you to get this work done.
You would do best to locate a dentist that can do both sedation dentistry and dental implants. When the extraction is complete, the best solution to replace the missing tooth is probably a dental implant.
This blog brought to you courtesy of Grosse Pointe Woods cosmetic dentistDr. Hadgis.