Why I Hate the Dentist

I've had a lifetime of bad experiences with dentists.  I will give you one example out of many.

As a kid, maybe 10 or so, I had a tooth grow in the roof of my mouth.  Obviously it had to come out.  The dentist we had was not a nice person nor was he a good dentist.  I'm a terrified kid about to have a tooth pulled and he's yelling at me to sit still.  To make sure I complied, I ended up with his knee on my chest holding me down while he pulled the tooth.  That's a hard thing to get over.

So now I'm a terrible patient.  I need handled with kid gloves.  I don't go as often as I should not only because I have no dental insurance but because I have to be really NEEDING to go to make an appointment.

Last month I was trying to be responsible and had a cleaning and had x-rays taken of all of my teeth.  One cavity had to be fixed, bottom front of my mouth.

I went at the end of November for this filling.  When the Novocaine wore off, the front of my chin was painful to the touch.  It's where the needle went in so I didn't think much of it.  I figured a couple of days I'd be fine.

The pain from the needle stick went away but holy cow my tooth HURT.  It hurt to brush it, it hurt drink cold water, it freakin' hurt.  If I have to call the dentist for another appointment you know it has to be bad because I hate going to the dentist.  But I was hurting and called on Tuesday and got an appointment for Thursday morning.  On Tuesday I didn't know if I'd make it to Thursday it hurt so bad.

You'll never believe what happened on Thursday morning.  I woke up and my tooth didn't freakin' hurt!  Seriously.  I kept my appointment, told him how much pain I had been in but woke up pain free.  They took a panoramic x-ray of my teeth to see if anything was going on since the face full of x-rays I just had done two weeks prior but they didn't show any infection or any problem.  Since I didn't hurt, I assumed all should be good aside from another big hit on my checkbook.  He said he can't find anything wrong with the tooth, all should be good going forward.

Guess what happened Thursday night!  Yep, tooth started hurting again.  Friday it was worse.  Today is Saturday and I barely ate breakfast with this damn tooth and I don't know what to do anymore.  I thought I would scream when I brushed my teeth, again with no cold water or soda, my tooth f-ing hurts.  I may have found the secret to weight loss because I can't eat.  I can't bite, I can't chew, the damn tooth hurts when my tongue touches it.

I really don't know what to do.  I was just at the dentist and he said nothing is wrong.  I'm broke after paying for a full set of x-rays, a panoramic x-ray, a cleaning and a crappy filling.  And I hurt like hell.  And I am beyond frustrated.