How are you at the dentist?

Post Reply New Topic

The drills! the Lights! people sticking their fingers in your mouth! yep, sounds like autistic hell.

surprisingly i can handle the dentist, ive been going since i was two, sure i hate that light in my face, sitting still for a half hour, people prodding and poking at my teeth and that DREADED drill in my ear, but for some reason, i dont shut down when im in the dentist. isn't that strange? I realised today, when i was getting a cleaning and a filling, the top half of my mouth is Hyposensetive while my bottom half is HYPERsensitive. so thats interesting

i do, however listen to music while the dentists do their thing, it makes a big difference.

how do you feel at the dentist and how do you deal with it?

Fortunately I had a dentist that was accommodating because I needed the full legal dose of nitrous oxide just to get my teeth cleaned. Even with the full dose of gas I would still get bothered by the dental tools scraping my teeth, but at least it wasn't completely unbearable that way. Without the gas, getting my teeth cleaned is comparable to fingernails on a chalkboard except my teeth are the chalkboard and I feel it instead of hearing it.

It sort of reminds me of Superman getting too close to kryptonite!

For me the worst/scariest part of being at the dentist is the fear of choking on something. Even my own saliva.

I have a very strong gag reflex and choke or feel like I'm choking very easily. The attendant who does the saliva aspirating tool thing has to be paying attention with me, because the tiniest bit of saliva going down backwards makes me panic and feel like I'm gagging. I've had to sit up and rinse and cough if the girl doesn't keep up with the saliva

I also have quite a small mouth and if the work being done is at the back of my mouth I have a hard time with my dentist having her fingers so far back there. My jaw also cracks on the left side and it starts to get painful to hold my jaw open so wide for a long time. I've had to ask her for breaks so I can shut my jaw and rest it as it gets to a point where I can't hold it open maxed out and my jaw muscles start to shake, and the pain goes up the side of my head, then she keeps telling me to "open, open" and I can't.

The rest of it I'm ok with. Better to get a filling over and done with rather than suffer with the pain of it, especially as cavities just get worse!

I end up having a severe panic attack and have to be drugged...

My ears are sensitive to high pitch/frequency sounds, and nothing at the dentist drives me more nuts then that ultrasonic plaque cleaning wand. Once that thing make contact with my teeth. It's like someone blowing a whistle in my ears. it's just awful.

I used to be fine, but then the orthodontist tried to do an imprint of my teeth with this gooey stuff, I panicked big time and have had a bit problem with dentists ever since, I panic just thinking of going.

As a young person I had some very bad experiences with a waste of space "oxygen thief" dentist going to a couple of good dentists as an adult cured me of my nerves regarding dentists, now I can not say I enjoy going. I have shocked a few dentists with some very foul words when they do something very painful, but most of the time I just lay back and let them get on with it.

I hate the dental hyginists with their ultrasonic teeth zapping thing, that is worse than the dentist by long way.

_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

I never enjoyed it but I put up with it. I got told to relax my lip alot & I still have no clue what it means. How can I chose to relax when not being relaxed is an involuntary thing

I actually don't find going to the dentist to be as awful as it can be for others, but I do always feel just a little bit nervous when I go. I've never gotten a cavity before, but I'm always nervous that there's a chance that the dentist might find just a tiny one that needs to be taken care of before it grows, or that I need some kind of tooth pulled, or a procedure done.

My dad and stepmom talk about the teeth problems that come with their age all the time, so that sort of gives me more reason to be nervous. I can remember sitting on my dad's lap once when I was about six years old, and he yawned and I looked down into his mouth. I saw all the fillings in his back teeth, and I gasped and said, "DAD!! You have all kinds of boo boos all over your teeth!!" He laughed and said, "Those are my fillings, Coupe - I didn't take as good care of my teeth when I was your age as I should have, so the dentist had to fill my cavities when I grew up - that's why you should always do a good job of brushing your teeth, while you're still young!"

The dentist I see is actually very pleasant and nice, and so are his nurses. He always asks me how I'm doing, and makes sure I'm comfortable before we do anything. He's also a photographer and has a lot of his photos framed around his office and in the halls, which gives you a nice focal point while you're getting your checkup. He also understands when I'm running low on "spoons" and bring Dory (my stuffed dolphin) in my pocket while I have my checkup done.

It's usually okay for me up until my dentist takes the tiny "scraper" thing (you know, the instrument that looks like it has a tiny replica of Captain Hook's hook-hand on the end) and starts scraping in between and around my teeth....that can hurt. But, at least it really deep-cleans my teeth so I have even less chance of getting cavities, and it doesn't last for very long.

As for what can make going to see the dentist easier, I have a few suggestions:

- Ask the dentist or nurse to explain exactly what's going to happen, what they will do, and what the instruments are used for. All the instruments that dentists keep lined up at the ready can look scary, but if it's just a routine checkup, they usually only use the sprayer, the scraper, and the motorized toothbrush.

- Ask if you can listen to music through headphones while the dentist and his nurses work - it might make the sounds of the toothbrush less annoying.

- If the dentist has a VHS or DVD player in his exam room, it might not hurt to ask if you can bring in a favorite movie to watch while they do their work...this might only be a thing with a pediatric dentist, though...my dentist doesn't have a TV.

- And like I briefly touched on earlier, bring any and all comfort items or stim/fidget toys that will help you feel calm and comfortable, whether it's a blanket, a stuffed animal, a Tangle toy, or a hat; whatever. If you bring a stuffed animal, it might lighten the mood a bit if the dentist takes some time to demonstrate how the checkup/procedure will go on your stuffed friend. I never had a doctor or dentist who was willing to do this with my stuffed animals, but it sure would have made the visit a lot less stressful and more fun for me if they had!

- If you need to get an x-ray of your teeth, the lead apron they spread on top of you beforehand feels almost just like a weighted blanket - try asking your dentist if you can keep it on during the checkup to help you feel calmer!

- When I was younger, my dentist would let me pick something out of the "prize drawer," in the back when the checkup was done. Even if you're not a kid anymore, it might make the checkup end on more of a positive note for you, if your dentist has a prize drawer. There might be something that would make a good DIY stim toy....

- If you have a support person, service animal, or parent with you, insist that they be present while the checkup is being done.

Remember, dentists usually want their patients to feel comfortable and to see the dentist as someone who's there to help, so they should be willing to accommodate you in the ways I mentioned above, as well as in others. If I think of any other ideas, I'll post here again, but I hope some of this helps!

I'm okay. As a child I stubbornly refused local anesthetics. I hated the feeling of numb lips and cheeks so I rather put up with the pain from the drill. Nowadays, the dentist doesn't even give me the option to refuse anesthetics.

Oh god. Don't even ask. I'm so terrified of the dentist like... omg. I think it's the idea of not knowing what they will do and how they'll do it. It sucks too because I have to get teeth pulled, then I have to get dentures. D: Yesterday, I was almost ready to explode from sheer anxiety. X_x On a scale of 1 to 10, one being the least and ten being the worst of all... my fear of dentists is a ten. The only way they can pull my teeth is by putting me to sleep. That's how bad my fear of them is.

I never used to mind the dentist. Then I got this f*****g quack of an orthodontist and spent five years in chronic pain until the retainer broke and my teeth went back to the ugly overbite that God intended me to have. I learned to hate the dentist.

But I still went. Until I was a college student and couldn't afford anything other than the student dental clinic (where they train future dentists any hygenists. I spent four hours, in the middle of a massive depressive episode, crying in the damn dental chair-- and then she needed me to come back and spend another three hours so she could finish. After which time, they used every scare tactic possible to talk me into getting another set of braces (they also trained orthodontists, imagine that).

I told them that I'd rather have all my teeth fall out than go through that again. Haven't been able to even THINK about walking into a dentist's office since. I even get nauseous taking MY KIDS to the dentist.

I don't know what I'm going to do-- I know I have a mouthful of cavities, and maybe worse, from over 10 years of not ever seeing a dentist. I'm getting to the time in life where I'm going to HAVE to go, or die of blood poisoning from an abscess.

When I was a kid, I was drug to the dentist kicking and screaming! It was hell!

Unfortunately, since I moved out of my parents house and no one made my appointments and forced me to go, I haven't gone and my teeth have suffered for it.

This is one of the major things things that I don't understand about myself. I can totally comprehend that not going to the dentist is bad and that my teeth are not in good health, but just understanding that isn't enough for me to do something about it. It's like that for several things that I will probably eventually get in big trouble for...... I know that I should be worried, and should do something, about these things, and I don't know why I don't I don't know if it's an autism thing, or if I'm just f***ed up in the head.

I don't mind the drills, the lights, the fingers, or any of the rest of it. I mean, it sucks, but I shut my eyes and tell myself that it will pass. I went every six months as a kid, and I don't know WHAT would have happened if I had resisted. I know at that time I was more scared of Grandma than I was of the drill, so I went and learned to tell myself that the invasion and misery were temporary.

What I have now, though, is permanent. I get cold sweats even TALKING about it.

I get nervous at the dentist, mostly because of the needles. I can't have the epinephrine needles as they cause a paradoxical effect on me. I usually take a gravol before going there and once the needles are done I'm fine, I have the laughing gas as well or whatever they call it.

I used to hate the dentist, mainly because I hate the polish they use to clean teeth (also hate toothpaste, but can manage it by being careful with my toothbrush). However, the past few years I've been able to avoid that by having the assistant use abrasion or ultrasonics instead of the polish for cleaning.