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How can I help my daughter suffering from extreme dental anxiety?
Hi,
My 24 year old daughter has Aspergers and suffers from extreme anxiety.
She needs 4 wisdom teeth extracting and is getting abscesses. She has had an assessment appointment at The Eastman Dental Hospital for possible extraction under general anaesthetic, which was incredibly hard for her to manage,but we got help from a sympathetic nurse. Unfortunately she was too crippled by anxiety to even attend the follow up consultation at UCH today. She has excellent teeth
and has not needed any dental treatment before, and has attended regular appointments with her trusted dentist. She is now suffering pain. All my efforts to assist her to attend are not working.Is there any way that I can get some help and support to overcome her fear and attend a future appointment?
This must be so difficult to deal with for you .
Firstly let the hospital know , possibly also in writing why she couldnt attend the appointment . Otherwise she may get the usual , you didnt attend letter saying go back to the beginning .
There is a Special needs department at the Eastman/UCL who may have some links to psychological services . I know the hospital used to have a psychologist available , and a liasion psychiatrist with an interest in dental patients .
Its that aspect of things that sounds as if you need professional help with .
She may get to the next assessment but then you will face how to get her to the actual GA appointment .
Hope this helps , its a tough one .
Jenny
