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.

I don't remember my first but I can remember navy all joining into 1. The latex gloves and tie on masks, plastic bibs all not really used anymore but miss them all the fear of having a cavity and hating the dentist back then. The cold if a cavity was found on a baby tooth.

I was 4 years old. 1940. Screamed like a banshee! Next visits, the same, but when I was five, the dentist said he would take me to see his airplane, if I shut up. I shut up! He took me to see it. It was a Piper J3 cub, on floats. I loved the plane, and that was the start of a 60+ year love of flying, and airplanes!! I soloed in a J3. probably flew 500+ hours in it. A joy to fly!!

My first experience with a dentist was terrible. Well, it wasn't a real dentist.

It happened almost 50 years ago. I think I was 4 or 5 years old. I ate a lot of sweets and of course had bad teeth.

One day I had a terrible toothache.

I lived in a rural area and there weren't many dentists yet.

I don't know what the real reason was, but my grandmother took me to her doctor rather than a dentist.

That man is long dead now, but he was a typical general practitioner. Very competent and he did a little bit of everything. He even had his own X-ray equipment and, if necessary, healed small arm fractures, etc.

Pulling a tooth was no exception for him. I saw clearly how he got everything ready.

They seemed like instruments of torture. The injection in my mouth was extremely painful.

I also know I saw a lot of blood. And the next few days my mouth was completely stiff. In short, it was a nightmare.

It was so bad that I would much rather have tooth pain for the next 2 years than go back to a dentist.

Until one day it really did hurt too much. But this time my mom took me to a real dentist.

He basically did everything behind my back. I saw nothing.

And rather than giving the anesthetic directly by injection into my mouth, he numbed my jaw a bit via a kind of spray. All in all a fairly painless experience.

Since then I am less afraid of going to the dentist. But I will never find it enjoyable.

I hope no one is offended. But having a dental fetish?

This is difficult for me to understand.