First dental experience - how old were you?

How old were you ? how did you feel ? what did you have done ?

I can't imagine many people remember their first experience, since a lot of people go to the dentist for the first time before they turn four years old, and it just so happens that people generally can't remember anything from before they were 3-4 years old.

My earliest memories are three occasions. The first is being laid in the chair, and the dentist was doing… Something. I was too young to know what was going on, but apparently I needed a filling. All I knew is that the dentist's gloves smelled really weird and they had this big orange plastic board in front of my face while they did what they did. The second is watching my sister have something done in the chair, and she was crying because they didn't give her enough anaesthesia. The night before my appointment, I had a nightmare that they were going to rip out all my teeth, so I refused to get in the chair and had to go into therapy for years. In fact, I distinctly remember lying to them, saying that I didn't like the smell of the gloves, when in reality, it wasn't that at all, it was the fear of what they might do once I was in the chair.

All of this was somewhere between four and five years old, because honestly, I have no idea when exactly it was, only the order of events.

First time for me was in first grade for a cleaning. I still dont like going to the dentist.

First exam was 4 or 5, very old dentist and equiptment. Remember water swirling in sink by the chair and cables running to drill head. Always hurt going there when he retired and got new dentist it was much better.

When l was 7yo, my mum's dentist gave me a check - though probably there had been earlier ones - and said that l needed to have some ‘milk teeth’ out under general anaesthetic. Soon afterwards, Dad drove me to a deserted building where l'd never been before. We went up a flight or two of stairs. In a dark foyer, a male dentist emerged from his brightly-lit surgery and ushered me inside (closing the door on Dad). The dental chair was in the middle of the room. Beside it stood another white-coated male assistant who grinned at me.

After the dentist had positioned me in the chair and had switched on his overhead lamp, he checked in my mouth and then nodded to the young assistant. That person turned out to be the anaesthetist. Quickly he sprang into action. He didn't actually rub his hands together, but he seemed keen. Again he grinned at me. Just before placing a close-fitting mask over my nose and mouth, he asked, ‘Have you had your tonsils out?’ l nodded feebly and said l had.

At this point, the dentist told him to get on with it. The anaesthetic gas quickly put me to sleep. The next thing l remember is waking up at home.

- Ken

Don't remember my first, but my earliest dental memories were ones of humiliation. I had a terrible gag reflex as a kid (much better now except for the x-ray thing), and often would throw up at the dentist because I couldn't handle all the stuff in my mouth. The pediatric dentist office was just this big open room with a bunch of chairs, and I'd show up and the doctor or hygienists would tease me about having thrown up before. And I hated it because it made it an unwelcoming place and also any other kids there could hear what they were saying.