Unfiltered Story #99511

(I’ve added stories about my orthodontist, but TL;DR: my teeth are too big for my jaw and I’m afraid/sickened by the though of both dentists and needles thanks to him. My mother badgered me to go to a new dentist that had been recommended to her since I hadn’t been near one since I left school and my teeth are a bit of a mess, so we both booked an appointment. We filled our information and a nurse came to double-check.)

Nurse: “OK, everything looks good here. Now, are either of you afraid at all?”

Me: “Yes!!”

(She reassured me that the dentist understood and would move slowly, and let me take breaks. The dentist was great during the X-rays and consultation, and went through and wrote down everything that I needed to have done,including wisdom tooth extraction in a specialist clinic due to nerves in my jaw being too close to the roots, as well as prices. Fast-forward a few weeks and we’re both back, I’m in for a filling with my headphones and lots of calm, soothing words – until I get out to reception…)

Receptionist: “… So the filling will be [price, as listed]. And I can get you booked in for the root canal whenever is convenient.”

Me: *suddenly anxious* “… What root canal?”

(Her face fell.)

Receptionist: “… I’ll just go get the dentist…”

(I’m left silently freaking out as my mother is still in for her appointment, and a minute later the dentist calls me back into her surgery room.)

Dentist: “I am so sorry about that. It turns out that this tooth is worse than we thought and has an abcess that needs to be sorted, but we can’t do that with a filling. Don’t listen to any horror stories you might hear about root canals, we use the newest, top-of-the-range practices and they don’t fail! But if you really want we can arrange an extraction along with the wisdom teeth. I’m sorry again, you did so well today that I didn’t want to scare you with this right now. ”

(It really wasn’t her fault and she was so nice, but the receptionist freaked me out so much. I waited for my mother, told her what was up, and of course she freaked me out even more about root canals. I decided to go for the extraction under general anaesthetic, but haven’t been able to face that place since!)