So as embarrassing as this is, I am willing to post it out in the open so that i can get advice on how to over come my etremelu HUGE fear of the dentist. When I was younger played basketball for my school in 6th grade and during one of the games I was elbowed really really hard in the mouth and very shortly after that happen I had to have four root canals in the lower front teeth. This experience was horrible. I was put to sleep and they did all four at once. However as I was "knocked out" I kept waking up because of the extreme amount of pain I could feel. The dentist was very rude and as I kept trying to tell them the numbing meds weren't working they just gave me more meds to put me back out. I can remember feeling lots and lots of pain but I was so drugged up that I couldn't wake myself up to tell them.
That experience was very traumatic for me and I have not been back since and I was in 4th grade at the time and I am now 33 yrs old.
I take good care of my teeth, brushing them 2x a day, and flossing however i have some teeth that i believe need some attention.
My question is how does a person get over their dental fear so that they can go to the dentist without having a severe anxiety attack or hyperventilating? Is there a certain dentist I should try to get into, or maybe a certain way the appointments should go.......just looking for ideas