I suffer from generalised anxiety but today I did something I have put off for a very long time, I went back to the dentist. I have somewhat of a phobia of Dentists having had a very bad experience when young (drill/filling without anaesthetic age about 8, because I didn't like needles and it was not really explained to me what that would mean until...)

Anyway, I was hoping to find a dentist that would be friendly and understanding. I put on the notes that I have a dental phobia and I haven't been in a long time but I'm not proud of this and I really want to work together with a dentist to get back on track and regular visits. I went to my health insurer's dentist.

Started off ok with the dentist, he was asking about my phobia and I explained it was about the fact I hadn't been so long and that it had been dominating my thinking until now and that it was a big step for me to make this appointment and my fear is you're going to tell me all of them need to come out etc.

Anyway we get going, he does X-rays, looks at the teeth etc and then his opening statement is, well the good news is we don't have to take them all out. And then I'm thinking of this is potentially going to be quite a lot then :/ and he began to rattle the few off it was my wisdoms that I still have (which to be honest I completely expected would have to go as I know they are very hard to clean properly) and was explaining that.

So then we get talking on another topic and I said I'm really not proud of my smile and he asked why and I said because the teeth just are a bit gunky etc not pearly white and he said we can do something about that but I won't do that until I can see a commitment that you're going to come back more frequently than 12 years (fair enough, I kinda get this attitude to a degree). and he kept saying that a bit when talking about some other treatment.

He then said if you come every 12 years I'll have to shock you each time and I kept re-iterating that I want this to be a new dawn and to work together to fix this but I also understand right now this is just words. So it seemed like he went down a tough love path, which knocked my confidence a bit. He also said if I start flossing I might avoid some fillings, so again that seemed a bit weird (i get flossing, but if fillings are needed it's needed?)

Anyway just after this we had a discussion about the wisdom removal process and the dentist who would be doing the work came in and explained it and he said 'your other teeth are strong' which is obviously the opposite of the tough love bit. It seemed like the first dentist was going down a path of shocking me to come back more frequently (and I plan to anyway) whilst the second guy was a bit more encouraging. So I'm holding onto that comment.

Anyway despite this I feel really good that I've started on a path to try and get something resolved, something which has played on my mind for an extremely long time and has caused me mental anguish (the longer it went the more anguished I got). I get he's probably heard it all before from others that they will come more frequently and perhaps they don't, but I genuinely do want this to be a new dawn and am anxious about how I am now viewed by this dentist.

Need some thoughts and advice on this, please.