How many people are like me: the nightmare of life is to see a dentist, see the treatment chair and immediately have weak legs, and hear the sound of the dental drill running inside the heart trembling?
On a sunny day last September, I was enjoying a latte of oats when I suddenly felt a small "stone" in my mouth. Spit it out and look at it – oh my God, isn't that a tooth?
(Image source: soogif)
I quickly used my tongue to look around in my mouth, and it turned out to be the large molar tooth at the bottom of the left, which usually had no sense of existence, but at this time there was a sharp edge and angle, and I almost cut my tongue.
And I instantly understood why this tooth would fall off a piece, because the wisdom teeth next to it were firmly against the edges and corners.
To put it simply, it is a wisdom tooth that has sprouted in the lower left of my mouth, it is the only wisdom tooth in my mouth that has "emerged", and it is also this wisdom tooth that I have not felt for many years that is no big problem, in order to seize the extremely limited position resources in the mouth, the big molar next to it is carious and broken, so as to "take the upper position".
At this point, my reaction was, "I'm not going to dentistry!" ”
In the eyes of my family and friends, I am a very "strong" person, at least not too afraid of pain.
But I know where my weak chicken is.
My nightmare in life is dentistry. Seeing the treatment chair immediately softened its legs, I heard the sound of the tooth drill running and my heart trembled. Just imagining the cold gas spraying on the gums, or the sour feeling of a crochet on the surface of the tooth, is enough to drive me crazy.
Put it this way, I can't do the work of secrecy: you put those treatment tools, pliers and tweezer clips... Put it in front of me, and I'm sure I'll keep the secret clean.
Going back in time to my childhood, I was quite wronged. Obviously, he does not like to eat sugar, and insists on brushing his teeth morning and evening, but he has never been spared by caries: the large molars on both sides and the front teeth have once had deep holes in the middle.
Because of fear, I dragged until my teeth hurt so much that I reluctantly took my parents to fill my teeth, and the treatment process was a torture that could be imagined. Not to mention that after a little older age, I have two times accompanied my family to extract teeth in a small clinic, and I have suffered a terrible medical experience of rough root canal treatment and oral vegetation removal. Since then, looking at the teeth has left me with a deep psychological shadow.
Seeing this, do you feel empathy? (If yes, first drag until the end of the article to point a thumbs up and then come back to see)
I believe that dental phobia is by no means a disease of mine.
The next few days I spent in fear, struggle, and hesitation. I checked it myself, and I felt that although the caries hole was large, it had not yet reached the point of "exposing nerves", and I did not feel pain, so I wanted to be an "ostrich" temporarily with a little luck.
But every time I eat, there are food scraps embedded in the holes, so I can't ignore the reality of "having a cure for a disease".
After the tongue was scratched for the fourth time, the dental phobia sufferer could not stand it either. Not to mention that I had a new discovery in the mirror: the other two teeth had been repaired more than a decade ago, and the filling was falling out in minutes.
In the end, the one who helped me make up my mind for treatment was the 7-year-old baby in my family.
Me: "Mom has a broken tooth and a hole. ”
Baby: "Then you have to go to the doctor right away, otherwise the small hole will become a big hole." ”
Me: "But I was afraid of pain, and I didn't dare to go." ”
Baby: "You are brave, to cure a small hole is a small pain, if it is to cure a big hole, it will become a big pain." ”
...... Well, if I had understood this in the morning...
With the encouragement of the baby, with the determination of "the wind is small and the water is cold", I stepped into a dental clinic step by step, and specially selected a doctor with a tiger's back and a bear's waist: if you want to extract teeth, the doctor with great strength will be neat.
"You're in a bit of a mess in this situation." The doctor looked at the X-rays of my teeth and frowned; my heart clattered.
"This wisdom tooth must be extracted, and after the extraction, look at the defect of the front molar, and may need root canal treatment and then make up." The trouble is that the wisdom teeth are long horizontally, the root of the tooth and the mandibular nerve tube are almost close together, and when pulled out, the nerve may be touched, causing numbness in the face, stiff expression and so on. There are also these teeth that have been repaired many years ago, and they can't hold up, and they have to dig up and make up for it. And this, this, this... These are all wedge-shaped defects caused by your long-term horizontal brushing, and they must also be compensated. ”
(X-ray of my teeth.) Patient courtesy of)
I was lying on the dental chair like a sieve, and at this time I was sweating like rain. The doctor also said that this set of "big projects" may take half a year before and after, and it will take more than a dozen trips to the hospital to be completely completed.
"How's it going? Why don't we have wisdom teeth pulled out today? ”
"No, no, no, I'll think again, thank you Doctor."
Originally, I only made a determination to fill my teeth, but it seemed that it was not enough, so I would like to instigate it first.
To extract wisdom teeth, there is a risk of "facial paralysis" if the extraction is not good; after the extraction, there are root canal treatments and fillings waiting...
This project was so scary for dental phobia patients that I registered for "Painless Dentistry" in the International Department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
(I'm waiting at the door.) Patient courtesy of)
"Judging from the film, it is indeed a more complicated situation, and the problems of large and small involve many teeth." The doctor explained it to me again and said, "It is recommended that you consider surgery under general anesthesia to solve the problem at once, saving time and no pain." ”
Treatment under general anesthesia?! Sounds like I just need to get a good night's sleep, don't have to endure pain and fear, open my eyes and teeth and look new? "No problem doctor, yes." On the road, I was still struggling with "whether it hurts more to pull out a tooth or anesthetics", and I was overjoyed to hear that I could be "painless" so thoroughly.
The doctor explained to me three conditions: First, surgical general anesthesia and endotracheal intubation, which took more than 3 hours to complete. I need to do a preoperative examination and anesthesia assessment to make sure that my condition is OK. Second, according to my treatment project, the overall cost will be about 30,000 yuan, depending on whether it is acceptable. Third, the surgery had to be queued up, two months later at the earliest – it was the end of September, and the surgery was likely to be scheduled until around the New Year to see if we could wait.
(My electronic medical records.) Patient courtesy of)
"If the surgery is confirmed, let's first find a way to repair the missing tooth, let it be used temporarily in these two months, and don't have acute pulpitis, it will be too painful." Seeing my fear, the doctor immediately added, "If you are particularly afraid, you can simply deal with it under intravenous sedation." ”
For the wisdom tooth tooth root close to the nerve, poor extraction may lead to "facial paralysis" problem, I trembled to ask the question, the doctor waved his hand: "Don't worry, I pull you out, the probability of hurting the nerve is very small." ”
I made my decision almost immediately. First, I am a strong middle-aged man with a BMI (body mass index) of 20, blood pressure and blood sugar are normal, and the anesthesia can withstand. Second, the cost of surgery is not low but reasonable and affordable. Third, waiting in line for two months is expected to "look new" before the New Year, and can afford to wait.
Moreover, spending 3 hours to get it done in a "one-stop" manner, instead of tossing and turning to run the clinic again and again for half a year, the time cost saved is huge. Also, I hope that this battle will alleviate my fear of dentistry.
So, the following week, I completed an anesthesia evaluation, and the doctor simply dealt with the missing teeth (five minutes to get it done, I was still wondering when to take the sedatives, he said "done"). The next step is to go home and wait for the operation.
Looking forward to it, looking forward to it, I finally waited for the notice of the operation and arranged it on the morning of December 15th. I went to Xiehe two days in advance to draw blood for preoperative examinations (including blood routine, liver and kidney function, etc.), and because of the epidemic, I still had to check a nucleic acid. Seriously, the "nasopharyngeal swab" checks the test of nucleic acid, but it is really too ... Sour.
On the day of the operation, it is necessary to fast food and water, and the nurse sister also reminded me to say "wear good diapers and not wet" (??? I still don't understand this requirement), wear loose clothes, and get a diagnosis on time. On the last day of my menstrual period, I put diapers on the outside of my pants, changed into my surgical gown, and followed the nurse into the operating room.
Until I lay on the operating table, I didn't feel nervous or afraid at all. The anesthesiologist came to confirm the basic information with me, and the nurse gave me a needle in the vein of my wrist, and I began to have some realism: this is going to go through the first general anesthesia surgery in my life.
"Don't be nervous, close your eyes and get a good night's sleep, and when you open your eyes, you'll look new." Probably seeing that I was afraid, the chief surgeon joked with me, "You see if there is anything else on your face that you want to move, and I will do it for you." ”
"I'm quite satisfied with my face, you don't move..." Before the joke was finished, the anesthesia took effect, and my eyes went black.
When I woke up, I was in a very dimly lit room (resuscitation room), the left half of my face felt numb, and I should have used local anesthesia when I had my wisdom teeth removed. The whole person is sleepy and weak. The nurse pushed me back into the brightly lit observation room and told me to continue to lie down and rest. After the operation, I needed to stay for at least two hours to ensure safety before leaving the hospital; the chief surgeon told me to stay, and when he had the last operation, he also helped me grind my teeth a little and adjust the bite.
(After waking up in the observation room.) Patient courtesy of)
The feeling of anesthesia gradually dissipated, the face was no longer numb, and the mouth was stuffy and uncomfortable, but it did not hurt much.
Finally, when the doctor had the last surgery, I stared in confusion and lay down on the dental chair again, and found that I was a little immune to the sound of the original fear of dental drilling. Sure enough, the unknown is the most terrible, and once the boundaries of pain are known, people's tolerance will be greatly improved.
The doctor prescribed me painkillers, told me to go home and recuperate, and told me not to brush my teeth and rinse my mouth that day, and to eat liquid food in the first few days, not to eat too hot, otherwise it would affect the healing of the wound. If there is a strong pain or fever, come to the hospital immediately.
(Several of my friends suffered from "dry grooves" after having their wisdom teeth removed, hitting a wall in pain and receiving a painful second treatment.) Maybe it's because the doctors are good, maybe because I'm lucky, I didn't have such a problem. ）
(Me after surgery.) Patient courtesy of)
The drug dissipated about the next morning, and what I felt was that there would be a little hidden pain in the location of the wisdom tooth extraction, and taking a painkiller could be ignored. Instead, intubation of the endotrachea caused a slight abrasion, so I had a sore throat and a hoarse speech for a few days.
Work returned to normal the next day. For the next two weeks, the slight pain did not affect my daily life, and I gradually transitioned from a liquid diet to a normal diet.
Later, I checked the surgical records and found that in the few hours I was asleep, in addition to the extraction of a horizontally impacted tooth, there were 13 teeth in the whole mouth that underwent treatment such as removing bad fillings, resin fillings and polishing, etc. The repair and improvement of the whole mouth was very large, no wonder that when I looked at myself, there would be a sense of "renewed" achievement.
Later, when talking to friends about this comprehensive oral treatment surgery under general anesthesia, most people will first sigh "Wow so expensive", and then follow up with a sentence "But completely free from sin and solving the problem again, it is also cost-effective.". Yes, that's what I think too.
In some European and American countries, "tooth extraction under general anesthesia" has long been a routine operation, not to mention a complex oral comprehensive treatment.
But we are too good at enduring pain, and we have been taught to "be brave" since childhood, as if being honest with our own pain is an unacceptable weakness. Coupled with the fact that many people do not understand pharmacology, they think that "anesthetics will hurt the brain" and forget that severe or long pain itself will also cause harm to the human body.
In fact, with the development of anesthesiology today, the effect and dosage of drugs can be controlled quite strictly, so that patients can maximize the benefits.
Writing here, I hope that everyone has a good tooth, and good teeth are precious (and really expensive). Also, if you're like me, you've been a dental phobia, hopefully this article will open a new door to cognition.
Expert reviews
According to epidemiological surveys, more than half of the population has more or less dental fear, which is no longer a simple medical problem, or even a social problem:
Dental anxiety and fear are one of the main obstacles that prevent patients from having regular dental check-ups, treating and preventing dental disease as soon as possible.
The vast majority of patients with dental fear have experienced dental violence (or traumatic, negative dental experiences) during childhood or adolescence, preventing patients from going to see their teeth. In the case of delayed treatment, the oral condition deteriorates further, the disease of the teeth becomes more complex and painful, and the need for more complex and more traumatic dental treatment leads to more dental fear – so patients often fall into this vicious circle and cannot extricate themselves.
Unfortunately, even in Europe and the United States, where dental medicine is more developed, dental fear itself still has no good treatment. However, for patients who already have serious diseases of the teeth, the use of comfort, such as general anesthesia treatment, can allow patients to avoid a negative dental experience, save time on visits, and reduce anxiety and mental stress during the process.
From the doctor's point of view, in the future, we also hope that dental viewing can become a more comfortable and more humanistic process, and we also hope that so many patients will not be scared into dental fear by dentists, and we hope that the whole society will pay attention to this topic. I wrote a book on my reflections on this issue, and the title of the book is "Goodbye, Dental Fear."
Today's general anesthesia surgery is very safe and does not impair intelligence. Of course, this kind of treatment is also very complicated, and there are high requirements for the overall quality and technical level of medical institutions and medical personnel, and it will also produce relatively high costs.
For patients who already have dental fear, the most important thing is to do a good job in the prevention of dental disease. You know, the vast majority of oral diseases are preventable. The second point is to recognize the fear yourself, face the fear, and have the confidence to overcome the fear and find a dentist who can help you - "Mr Right".
Text: Aimina Yuan | Editors: Wu Jiaxiang, Ye Zhengxing
Proofreading: Wu Yihe | Typesetting: Li Yongmin
Operation: Han Ningning | Coordinator: Wu Wei