Your dentist experiences

What experiences have you had at the dentist that you remember for a long time? Both positive and negative?

How did they contribute to your fascination with the topic?

When I was about 12, the dentist - Dr. Larsen - slapped me for being uncooperative. I shut my mouth and refused to open it. They called my parents and I never saw him again. Since then, I have always hated and distrusted dentists.

I have a reputation , as a kid every tooth in my mouth was drilled filled pulled or Fucked with, as an adult I bonafide papers as not just a dental phobic but a gutless one . In the early 2000’s bean counters were trying all kinds of stuff to save money , one of our hospitals tried switching to a colorless odorless sanitizer in the sterilizer , one commonly used by dentist . I’m just a hapless idiot who took his G/F in for a colonoscopy , I was supposed to be her safe ride home , less than 5 minutes I was feeling weird , so as she changed on went outside to have a smoke it turned into a complete shitshow from there with me using firefighting techniques to get back to her floor literally crawling . The nurses were so worried they put me in a wheelchair and started asking me the normal health history and vitals , that was a bridge to far 5 more minutes exposure to something I couldn’t see or smell let alone touch , I went into shock and started crashing , so got rushed down to ER . Needless to say I was patient _# 3 who almost died from something I didnt even know existed . And had no physical contact with . The only common denominator that investigators found between all of us was being a dental phobic we didn’t know each other , have any commonality in history except that . As mysteriously as we started getting sick , they ditched that sanitizer and solved the problem nobody new was problem . Since the hospital made us sick , they couldn’t bill us or our insurance for care , so to try and save money they cost themselves a bucket load . I can laugh about it now back then it was no joke . That’s one way to get a reputation !

I don’t remember my exact age but one of my first recollections of the dentist was having an abscessed baby tooth that had to be pulled. That led to me absolutely hating the dentist and having fear of anything to do with my teeth. I have had horrible teeth my entire life to the point I was told dentures were my only option in my 20’s. Fast forward another 20 years I found a dentist I trusted enough to remove all my teeth and now have implants with dentures permanently attached and love my “teeth”.

When I was about 8 years old I was at the dentist to have a cavity filled. I was never told there was such a thing as novacaine so was not offered any. I was petrified of the drill... it was the old kind with the belt on the pulleys to make it spin. He started drilling and I didn't feel any pain until I realized he was drilling my lower lip! I tried to yell and pointed at the drill in my lip. I think he fell asleep! I yelled for my dad... he came in and I told him what happened. That was the last time I saw Dr D!

I had my first two cavities when I was 12 or 13. When the dentist found the first one, the assistant went outside the exam room and said that she would get my mother which I was quite embarrassed about. When my mother was there they found the second one.

They scheduled an appointment for the treatments a few weeks later. My grandma drove me to the appointment and I went into the treatment room by myself. I was really scared as it was a different room than usually. There was more equipment in there.

They didn't give me anesthesic because they said that the cavities were rather small, but it was quite painful and the drilling took a long time.

I was too shy to really say anything but I think they saw that I was in pain.

Ever since then it has been quite a fascination.

In 2004-2005 I had a "full mouth reconstruction", Three broken teeth were replaced with implants, the rest given longer crowns to open up my bite. Also, there was gum contouring. It was 60 plus hours in the chair and cost wise I like to say I have a "Porsche parked in my mouth".

It was so worth it. I'm trans and it gave me an amazing "pageant quality smile"

Had lots of bad experiences at the dentist when little. I would gag easy and they didn't seem to care when I was gagging and uncomfortable, so I often vomitted during procedures. It happened so often that the hygienists would tease me about when I'd show up, so it was always an uncomfortable place for me.

When I was 16 I just stopped going to the dentist since the onus was then more or less on me to make and keep my appointments. I hated the place and was glad to be rid of it. Fast forward to my later college years, and I started experiencing tooth pain and sensitivity. I was absolutely mortified at going back to a dentist. My parents dentist (who they both hated more or less) had a daughter that had just graduated dental school and had joined his practice so they suggested I visit her. I have multiple cavities a few of them big. She scheduled me for these evening appointments, and usually by the end it was just me, her, and her assistant. But I was shocked at how kind she was and how painless the procedures went even though they were long appointments. So that kind of showed me the other side of things . . . so I think it's a bit of the trauma of youth combined with finally finding a dentist who seemed to care.

More recently, I volunteered as a patient at a dental hygienist clinic, and got to spend about 10 hours in the chair during the span of one week.