I will be upfront that I have avoided the dentist for a few years now. I had a really bad experience and I pretty much get hives just thinking about going back. However, I had a tooth start hurting and had to go in. They said I have one infection and four cavities. This is going to be a lot of expensive work. Not to mention I may be in hives for months. Any advice?

Abigail

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Dear Abigail,

I’m going to address the fear issue first. When a patient is dealing with dental anxiety I have found that using dental sedation options is a life saver for them. There are different levels of sedation. Given your experiences and the fact that you have a tooth infection, I’m going to recommend you use oral conscious sedation. It’s so strong that you could sleep through your appointment if you wanted to. I hope this puts your mind at ease about getting to the dentist.

Now, let’s talk about affording the work you need. Obviously you need to deal with the infected tooth. This is serious. Most people don’t realize that you can die from an untreated tooth infection. In fact, between six to ten people in the United States die from tooth infections every year. I would focus on dealing with that.

Once that is finished you can have your dentist triage the remainder of your needed work. I would also make sure you are going to a dentist that strives to keep their prices as affordable as possible. Many of them actually put on their websites that they are affordable dentists. This will help you.

If you find that you have enough to take care of a bunch of work at once, you will find that by using dental sedation you can get more work done in one appointment than you would otherwise have been able to. This will allow you to get caught up on your dental work faster.

This blog is brought to you by a friendly Lexington Dentist Dr. James Williams.