Do you hate the dentist? I "feel" your pain…continued

So…where was I….Oh, yes I had just entered the emergency department at the dental school. Now that I had some time to absorb it all, it became evident to me that the front of my face was starting to hurt. One of my professors saw me and I lifted my hand from my mouth to expose the damage. Now this is where things really went south for me.
Her immediate reaction was one of mild disgust, if there is such a thing. Here I was, along with at least a dozen other people who had walked in for some dental problem or another. This was going to put a real wrench in her schedule. Someone took me back to a dental chair and she came in to examine me. No sooner had I opened up than a huge needled was jammed into the roof of my mouth and the worst, most painful dental shot I had ever had, was delivered. My eyes immediately teared up as a reaction to the pain. “Quit being such a baby”, she said. Over the next thirty minutes she poked around and made a few phone calls to various clinics within the school to see if they could take me off of her already very busy hands. Finally, with a numb face and a piece of bloody gauze, I was escorted to the surgery clinic. The surgeons were a little less grumpy with me, but no more gentle. No one told me what they were doing or what to expect. Was I going to lose my front teeth? How would I be able to be a dentist with no teeth! After what seemed like hours I finally ended up in the root canal clinic. Here is where things changed.
A young dentist came over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. He sat down and asked me how I was feeling and what had happened. Then he told me what they were going to try to do to save my front teeth, or what was left of them. At last I felt like maybe there was some hope for me. Maybe I would be able to look normal again.
After that things kind of blur together and I don’t remember much of that day. I do remember however, thinking that I was going to have to quit dental school or find a better way to practice dentistry. Fortunately, I stayed in school and with the help of my friend Joe (and now my business partner) we founded a dental office in Charlotte, North Carolina that is specifically designed to help people who have had negative dental experiences like I did.
Although that encounter happened almost 18 years ago, the memory is still fresh in my mind. I still get chills when I recall it. Maybe you have had a similar experience. We know how it “feels.”

Dr. Y

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