How much information should I share to the Dentist

So I have been dealing with facial/dental discomfort since February after being diagnosed with gingovastitis (viral gum infection).By the time I saw the dentist I was pretty worked up with anxiety and needed two clonazepam just to go to the appointment. Turned out the infection was healing...and there was no need to prescribe antibiotics. The dentist said the nervy pains to my teeth was coming from my infamed gum tissue. FAST FORWARD....
I felt relieved for a bit but the pain continued. Then I obsessively wondered what he might have missed since he didnt xray. I am fairly regular with dental visits and have had several xrays in the last two years. But still I fretted.
Then I started to revisit the TMS practise. I thought teeth didnt count for some reason... so....I have had pain free days, followed by complete confidence in TMS and then it comes back and its like I need reasurrance again. It also went into elbow pain, leg pain and know back to dental pain. My question is...I booked a dentist appointment with my usual dentist since at last I can. I told the receptionist the visit is for a cleaning and check up. I dont want to tell my dentist about the weird symptoms in case it starts some bullshit investigative stuff that makes everything worse. I figure an x ray and cleaning and check up should rule out any problems and give me that last 5% push that I need for complete acceptance. I just cant handle any scary labels...but I cant handle thinking it might be a rogue wisdom tooth root growing into my sinus cavity or something equally ridiculous...argggg

Is wanting more proof that it is not structural productive to healing or am I fooling myself and caught up again in an obsessive loop? I do need a cleaning however at some point...but do I stay silent about my symptoms?

 

Hi @Lonewolfbunny!

I had a similar reaction in my mouth AFTER a wisdom tooth removal. However, I got the wisdom tooth taken out because I kept having mild facial/dental pain and I ASSUMED that it was coming from a wisdom tooth. I ended up with more pain after the surgery than before!

My oral surgeon went ahead with the surgery but the thing is with dentists/oral surgeons that they want to keep on treating anything that presents with pain - they love to assign dental pain to CAVITIES, INFECTIONS, WISDOM TEETH ETC. However, you'd be surprised how most cavities don't even cause pain and how wisdom tooth surgery is usually never necessary as the body knows how to take care of itself. Of course, I didn't know this back then - I had to go through numerous rounds of antibiotics and root canals just to realize that no treatment from dentist will relieve my pain. That's how I ended up with the trigeminal neuralgia/atypical odontalgia diagnosis. However, that wasn't treated right either because the meds prescribed by the neurologist didn't work (how could they? Nothing works for brain created pain!) and the brian surgery (!!) they recommended was off limits for me. I mean, I already had so many procedures done in my mouth why would I let them operate near my brain?!?!

Anyhow, as you see I ended up with no other choice than to either accept TMS or lay under the knife (not to mention that facial surgeries are highly unsuccessful). I am glad I went the TMS route although it took me about a year to get better (and I still have mild flare ups). I never thought I would be here today enjoying my Sunday morning. At my worst, I could not sleep at all, lost my job and was a complete nut case. You can't imagine how far I have come. And I did it without help of any doctors! I am not taking any meds and I am not seeing any dentists and I am fine. That does not mean that I won't get a crown placed or get a cleaning done. I still need to do that this year. But there is no point in complaining to them about re-occurring pain. If they treated you or said that everything is fine - trust it.

I believe that getting an X-ray check up with the cleaning will be more than enough! Best of luck!

 

@Patrisia Thanks for the reply! I am glad you didn't choose surgery and that you have recovered so well!
You have assured me of what I instinctively felt...that saying anymore than necessary during my dental visit is going to take me down a rabbit hole and not towards healing.
Just yesterday I had a moment where the pain went to the other side and I 'made' it subside because I felt so clearly in myself that this was TMS. The rest of the day was great. So it can leave, as have all my other weird past pain symptoms (I have battled many). This one is very scary when it comes so I need to really focus on it being TMS. When i am successful at this...it is much better. It is funny because this particular problem was something I came across last year and thought oh god that would be awful...so ya...guess what!? As soon as my mind had the chance it latched on. Even realizing this the journey can be difficult.

 

Also...brain surgery??!! Wow!

 

One time the backmost gum hurt for a day after routine cleaning and it went away. Maybe talk to a TMS doctor like Dr Schubiner first and/or get it checked out if you haven't. If you need a cleaning just tell them that area is sensitive if it hurts. Maybe sensodyne toothpaste might help a little too.

 

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