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I Need Extensive Dental Treatment But Suffer with Anxiety and Agoraphobia. What Should I Do?
I am 35 and have been told my top teeth are beyond saving other than 3 of them on the right. I need them all extracting including 2 eye teeth which never came down. I have no gum left around the front 2 teeth on top and they are all severely decayed. I also need all 4 wisdom teeth removed and root scaling on my bottom teeth where my gums have started to recede. I got told this and never went back and am now off the books at my dentist and no one is taking on via NHS. I also suffer from ME/CFS and severe social anxiety and agoraphobia. I panic just leaving my house and have anyone near me so I have no idea how I am going to do my treatment. I am that close to giving up. The dental hospital is in Manchester which is 90 minutes away on a train, so I can’t even get a referral there as it’s too far and I have no friends or family. I live in Blackpool. Please help!
Hello, I’m so sorry you have all these problems. The first thing is to try to find someone in your area who might be able to treat you.
The first port of call would be the local Community Dental Service where they treat patients with special needs. That is on the NHS.
I’m sure that there are dentists in the Blackpool area that will still take NHS patients, however I think the list of dental work that has been given to you needs to be broken down into priorities and smaller chunks. Do the un-erupted canines and wisdom teeth really need to be removed? It sounds as if you need your remaining upper teeth out, and a partial denture making.
Possibly cleaning of your lower teeth.
I dont know what psychological help you are receiving for your agoraphobia issues, but it might be worth trying to get them to help you get to a dental surgery for another assessment. You have made the first move by contacting me, so I suggest the next step might also be to look at www.dentalfearcentral.org where there are other people who get support and some suggestions about suitable dentists in your area.
I hope this helps, Jenny.
