Dealing With Headaches

Last time I mentioned dentalwork headaches, I also mentioned that I had about two weeks before my dreaded dental appointment.

Didn’t work out that way.

A few hours after that post, the pain came back so bad, I thought my face was having labor contractions. And, that being Thursday, I of course could not get an appointment to see the dentist until Monday. His office put me on antibiotics and acetominophen for the pain.

And so I only had the weekend to stew. The tension of wondering how much it would hurt and how much it would cost gave me a dentalwork headache.

Today’s Dental Trip

My goodness — I made it to the dentist’s chair and back still alive. Turns out the labor contractions in my face was an abscess. So, I had my first (and hopefully last) root canal. And you know what? It wasn’t as bad as my family told me it would be. Yes, it was bad, but I’ve had worse.

I took Excedrin before the dentist appointment, to help counteract the splitting headache I usually get after my skull has vibrated a while because of the drill…and because of the panic I put myself through. Constant fear can greatly magnify any pain, including headaches…and toothaches.

In oder to deal with the panic and dentalwork headache (which is really a tension headache with the word “dentist” as a trigger), I did a few things:

• My Mom drove me there and back. That was one less thing to worry about.
• This time, I actually turned around to look at all of the instruments laid out on my dentist’s tray. Usually, I just scrunch my eyes shut and grip the armrests throught the entire visit. Being able to see the small size of the hooks, scrapers and the needle helped, oddly enough. I guess these torture chamber instruments didn’t quite live up to my imagination.
• I periodically made myself breathe deeply. This helped to relax some bodily tension, which contributes to headaches.

Dentalwork headaches are a symptom of dental phobia. In order to help ease the dentalwork headache, I had to work on my dental phobia. And now I’ve faced the fire-breathing dragon called Going To The Dentist and he didn’t even singe my eyebrows.

Until I got the bill, anyway. Ouch! Still, it was cheaper paying for work now than if I delayed until the whole tooth decayed (not just the nerve) and needed a crown (which averages about $1500 where I live).

Hope this helps others who get dentalwork headaches because of dental phobia.