Help with your dentist phobia (Dentists)

Member Name: Mabelthemini

Product:	Dentists
Date:	19/01/09 (463 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gets you to the dentist

Disadvantages: gets you to the dentist!! ££££££ expensive

This review has two functions-first to give some hopefully helpful advice to those who have a dental phobia and secondly to recommend a great dental surgery.

As someone who didnt visit the dentist because of a phobia for 10 years it got to the stage where I eventually got an infection and had to go and have four teeth removed. I was in such pain that my mum forced me to make an appointment.

Before I went I visited my doctor to see if there was anything she could give me to calm me enough to get me to the dentist. She prescribed me a low dose of Diazapam (also known as Valium) I took it as directed and sure enough I was calm and relaxed enough to go to the dentist for my consultation. I took it again 2 weeks later to get me to the surgery to have my teeth removed. I had this done under an anaeasthetic somewhere between a local and a general, you have a drip in the back of your hand with the anaeasthetic in,you are aware of the tugging of your teeth but are in no pain and you don't care what they are doing! An anaeasthetist from the local hospital came to the dentist for the procedure which cost about £300. I have heard recently that this procedure can no longer be carried out in dentists but only at the hospital.

If you are putting off treatment because of a phobia I would advise visiting your doctor and enquiring about Diazapam,obviously it is a prescription drug and carries a risk as with all drugs but in my opinion it's worth it, I was in pain for months before treatment and now am absolutely pain free.

The dentist I had my treatment at is the Vicarage Street Dental Surgery in Vicarage Street, Barnstaple, North Devon. They are a very good practice, the dentists are brilliant at dealing with nervous patients and i would recommend them to anyone. You will need to put your name on the waiting list for NHS treatment as they do get booked extremely quickly as soon as there are patient vacancies.

If you don't live near this surgery then it always advisable to ask family and friends where they go, there are good and bad dentists as there are anything else. There is one in particular in my area that give the hospital one third of all their corrective surgery patients in the dental department (info from the surgeon at the hospital) Be wary of surgerys that are constantly taking on NHS patients,if its a good surgery you will usually need to wait.

To sum up, if you need to go don't put it off-there is help for you with your phobia

Summary: it's a necessary evil-5 stars for my local surgery 0 stars for tooth pain