OUCH! That hurt a tad.

Going to the dentist has never been high on my list of things I really REALLY want to do. In fact it would be fair to say that I have a very genuine phobia about going to the dentist.

Considering the amount of times I have been hit, kicked, whacked with various heavy items around the head and in particular my face, it is actually a wonder I have any teeth left at all. I played lots of rugby, had 38 fights in the ring, plus lots of sparring. I did martial arts for more than thirty years. I spent 14 years as a bodyguard and doorman. So I have had more than my fair share of knocks.

My dentist phobia was so bad at one time that I endured days of pure agony after cracking a tooth and getting an infection. I plucked up the nerve to go and explained to the niurse that I really did have a problem being there. The dentist however, decided to ignore what she had told him and was very rough. He had fixed a clamp in my mouth to keep it open then said "Hold still this will not hurt"!!! Lying git! Pain shot down my neck and I came out of that chair like a ballistic missile. BANG! and I was off down the street, still wearing the silly blue bib and a metal clamp in my mouth which was making me panic even more.

A copper found me frantically trying to get the clamp out. He was laughing at me which just made things worse. I eventually calmed down and was taken back to the surgery......... in time to see the dentist being carted off in an ambulance. WHOOPS! I had knocked him spark out and broken HIS teeth, which cost me £700 to get fixed or face charges.

With that memory still very vivid in my mind, I was rather disconcerted to find I had broken another tooth a few days ago. I got the usual sympathy from my club brothers........ NOT. However, at the clubhouse tonight, the tooth was really hurting and one of my brothers asked what was wrong. When I told him he said, get a prospect to bring you some pliers and pull it out. Another one said "I bet you a quid he won't".

Prospect brought me a pair of pliers and I took a deep breath and....... pulled the offending tooth out. Mouth full of blood and instant relief. Who needs dentists? I now have a big gap where the tooth was, but no more pain. (I reckon those pliers must have been a bit rusty as I have a very strange taste in my mouth now.

Chopper. :D:D

 

:tnp:I know what you mean about Dentists Chopper, had an abcess that blocked the anesthetic. After 2 failed attempts i'd had enough & let him pull it out. Blimey that hurt.

 

Thanks Marley and Ziggy. Feels a lot better this morning. The offending article is going to be mounted and put on the wall in the clubhouse. Right next to the stitches I had removed from my arm by a prospect.

Well, the clubhouse is my second home. So it is only right that bits of me are there.

Chopper.

 

Well, you certainly have my sympathies, Chopper. I to have a mega dental phobia. In the early days I was able to cope pretty much but then they started with this chair that laid you flat so they could sit while they did their business.

Now my phobia is mostly centred around a fear of choking so being unable to swallow and having that drill with spray in your mouth was enough to make me freak out. Well, I had to have a tooth treated that had always had a sharp pain when I bit on it. The dentist eventually decided the filling was old and probably cracked so needed to be replaced.

Back I go and the drilling started. She flicked out a large piece of filling at one point which, though it wasn't terribly painful, made me gasp. I inhaled just a spot of the spray and immediately felt I was going to choke! I totally flipped out, flung my arms out to get myself up and the next thing I knew, I was standing in the corner of the surgery, shaking like a leaf. When I looked at the dentist, she was laying across her instrument table, shaking her head! I had caught her right across the face and almost knocked her out!

Well, it took her about 15 mins to persuade me back into the (upright) chair to put in a dressing and I went home. The next day I told her I wanted the tooth extracted but it would have to be under a general anaesthetic. After a short dispute about this, she agreed and said she'd put me in for it the next week. I said "what? No way am I having a GA in a dental surgery - not at my size!" She got offended and said they were more than capable, blah blah blah. Rubbish! Patients of my size (18 stone) are at great risk when having a GA.

So, since I was theatre manager at the local hospital, I rang the oral surgeon at our sister hospital and told him my woes. He was all reassurance and said he was on holiday the next week but if I didn't mind his registrar doing it, he could book me in on the front of next week's operating list. I replied I didn't give a toss who pulled it as long as I had a consultant anaesthetist and there was a cardiac arrest trolley outside the door!

Well, I went in for the extraction at 8.30am, should have taken about 10 mins and the anaesthetist told me he wouldn't use an endotracheal tube as it would be too quick. Yup - I was fine with that.

I woke up about midday in the most appalling pain and found I had to stay in overnight. Turned out the tooth was fused to the bone and the young doctor had had to take me into theatre and drill the roots out a bit at a time! As the morning wore on, they had cancelled first one patient and then the next until the entire list was cancelled! I still have a humongous hole in the bone were the tooth was and over which I had to have a skin graft! I was so relieved I hadn't let that stupid woman do it!

It was about six years before I got to see a dentist again and then I found an absolutely lovely lady in Braintree who specialises in dealing with dental phobic patients. Though I moved up to Sunderland in 1999, I still drive the 500 mile round trip to see her. I've had sessions lasting three hours with four fillings from her. She imbues absolute trust and explains everything she is doing as she goes. Plus, not only does she treat me sitting up, she will let me have a couple of seconds rest every few minutes so I can take a breath and swallow. She is just wonderful and has an approach of calm and kindness that imbues absolute trust.

If anyone wants her contact details, shoot me a pm, okay? Unfortunately, she doesn't take NHS patients.

 

Holy cow, Chopper......you had a heck of a time didnt you.

My youngest daughter, who's almost 19, had to have some wisdom teeth out this past summer, and she ended up having to have a "bone extraction" done as well, and had stitches galore in her mouth from it, poor Natalie was down and out for days!!!

 

Chopper & Daisees, your stories really made me giggle, how I wish I could have been a fly on the wall!!!!
Yes, I am also a dental phobic, my phobia is of the injection, once that is over I am OK but the dread of it still keeps me away, consequently I have now lost my place in his NHS list and have to pay full charges. I won't go anywhere else as it has taken me 10 years to sort of get used to this one.



Val

 

http://www.expresschemist.co.uk/dentek-oral-care.html

The home dentistry kit. My mates used to call my hi fi servicing kit that, now you can really get one:dh:

 

Wow...how brave of you guys to explain your phobias.
My coffee is now curdled..!
I hope in some way that by talking about it helps your situation. I really do.
Me.. I have been known to visit the dentist twice in one day.
Its my wallet that hurts most.. I suppose I am lucky.
I remember many years ago in service during a dental check up this big healthy guy in front of me just collapsed in a heap before getting to the dentist door !
You just never can tell.

 

Not for me it isn't honestly. I cannot explain the totally irrational dread of going to the dentist. It is not that I am worried about pain. I have no fear of that and a lot of experience of it.

Twice I was caught in bomb blasts. I had 2 inch bolt from one bomb that hit my pelvis and I still have a gap in my hip where it was removed. I had a huge chunk of car door hit my arm in the second blast. It went in one side and was sticking out the other side. I watched them remove that under a local anaesthetic, same with all the shrapnel in my legs and stomach. I was joking with the medic while they operated on me.

My left elbow and forearm were shattered in the blast and as a result I have had 24 operations on it. The first operation to remove all the shrapnel and bone fragments was under a general. The second was to implant an artificial joint and loads of metal to hold it all together. Most of the other ops they have let me stay awake so I can watch them working. I have photos of the surgeons with mole grips and spanners in my arm.

I was sat in a drag race car that me and a mate were preparing for racing when the engine blew up very quickly followed by the fuel cell. Blew me over the hedge into next doors garden. My left hand was shredded and I had 2nd degree burns all over my head, face, neck, arms back and chest, then from my knees down. I had to have major plastic surgery to rebuild my hand and skin grafts. 13 months in and out of Stoke Mandeville Burns Unit.

My hand has 16 staples holding it together. My left knee is metal. I have a plate in my eyebrow and a bolt at the top of my forhead. I am covered in tattoos and numerous other scars. Broken every bone including my neck at various times. I have a titanium carbide joint in my neck. Pain is natures way of reminding you, you are still alive.

People that do not know me tend to be rather wary of me as I am not the most friendly looking guy you could meet. I will fight anyone or any number of blokes, no matter what they are armed with. I have jumped out of aeroplanes many times, bungee jumped, drag raced, bike stunts including jumping over buses and cars, horse riding, gliding, abseiling. I just love anything fast or dangerous, real adrenalin junkie.

Despie all that experience of things that might cause pain. Put me anywhere a dentist and I turn into a jibbering wreck. My hands go all clammy, I sweat and tremble, go very pale, my feet turn to lead, my heart races and I hyperventilate. It is a horrible feeling for me that takes me a couple of days to get over. I even tried going to a hypnotist. Just talking to a dentist on the phone is enough to get me panicking. Bizarre to say the least.

Chopper.

 

I don't have a problem with needles JWK, just as well considering I am covered in tattoos. Last one I had done was on the side of my neck earlier this year. I nearly fell asleep while it was being done!

I used to be terrified of hieghts as a kid. Ok up to about 6 feet off the ground but after that I just froze up. Found a brilliant cure for that. All you need is a best mate with a very sick sense of humour.

My best mate in the army (RIP Abdul), had done a few drops before he joined up. Unbeknown to me he volunteered me to go on a para course. Picture the scene.

I was stood on first parade one bright and sunny Monday morning. I couldn't find Abdul anywhere before we fell in. (He had already gone on his bike, knowing that I would go beserk if he was there when I found out.)

Corporal Major says to me "What the **** are you doing here"? A tad puzzled I replied "First parade sir". His reply was deafening, "You are supposedto be at Brize Norton for your para course". I vividly remember going very cold and pale just to hear those words was enough to make me feel ill. Being a good soldier I got my kit and met the duty driver at the guardroom. I felt cold and clammy all the way there and hardly said a word to the driver.

I was more than an hour late getting to Brize Norton and the instructor was not best pleased. I got a very swift update and then got thrown in at the deep end. Looking backI quite enjoyed the training in the big hanger on the harness. Exciting but I knew I was sort of safe having the ropes etc.

When we went up in the ballon the first time I nearly passed out. I clung on to the side of that basket and nothing was going to make me let go. I had checked and double checked everything. I had listened very carefull to what I was being told. Every time I had a chance I reminded my best mate that I was going to batter the living daylights out of him when I got hold of him.

I watched absolutely petrified as the other guys went out of the basket. I could see that one or two were rather nervous, and hesitated but still jumped. I knew that the instructor would not actually PUSH me out. They are not allowed to. All he did was walk across the basket towards me and got right in my face, bellowing instructions at me. It is a natural reaction when someone gets too close to you, to move away. I kept moving, so did the instructor. Next thing I knew there was an awful lot of air between me and the ground. The other guys told me afterwards they could hear me shouting and swearing at my mate all the way down.

I did what I supposed to do and had a pretty good landing. Soon as my feet touched the ground I hit the harness release and went after my mate. I was always much faster than him and soon caught him. The other guys pulled me off him before I did too much damage and held me down. They were all laughing at me and trying to make me understand that I had just done my first drop. Took a while for that to sink in. Fear does funny things to you and boy had I been scared.

I went back up soon after and did another drop before we lost the light. The instructor gave me a lot of attention and told me that my first drop had been pretty much a text book jump. He made sure that I knew the drill and up we went again. This time I knew what to expect. I was still extremely scared but jumped with only slight hesitation.

Since then I have done 1784 drops, in many different places and countries, including military drops, HALO drops, night time, bad weather. It was a drop that went wrong that broke my neck. Otherwise I would still be doing it. I loved the adrenalin, probably the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

I would say I have conquered my fear of hight, but I really miss my best mate, especially every time I am doing something a bit risky.

Chopper.