Please for the love of all that is good, don’t suffer in pain.

Tonight I saw 3 different patients in the out of hour’s service who had been putting up with dental pain for many months. For different reasons, they had each just put up with the pain until it became unbearable this evening. 

The thing is they didn’t have to.

I understand that this might sound strange if you haven’t experiences this, because dental pain is difficult to ignore for most people. Yet many patients put off seeing a dentist when their mouths start to hurt – and some do so for a veeerrrryyyy long time.

The most common reason I see for this is anxiety about treatment, as with my first of these patients this evening. Dental anxiety is incredibly common. Many people have had bad dental experiences in the past, and those bad experiences stick with them. And the more anxious they become the more they only attend the dentist when in pain. And this action reinforces the connection in their minds between pain and the dentist – exacerbating their anxiety and fear over the dentist. 

However, every single week I see patients in the emergency clinics who say ‘that wasn’t as bad as I was expecting’. More often than not, the thought of the dentist is a thousand times worse than the reality of it. And 100% of the time, visiting the dentist is less challenging than putting up with dental pain for months.

If you’ve avoided going to the dentist due to dental anxiety, please be reassured that most dentists will discuss your concerns with you and work with you to adapt treatment and make it more accessible for you. If you are looking for a dentist in the Glasgow area who will listen to your concerns about dental anxiety, come find me and be my patient. I will do everything I can to look after you well. 

My second patient tonight had suffered in pain because he kept expecting the pain to disappear and felt too busy to visit the dentist. Simply dental pain won’t sort itself out. A dental infection will never resolve without treatment, and will always be a problem until it is addressed. This patient kept putting his work and family in front of addressing his dental pain, and had suffered for it. I know life can be busy sometimes, but are you really your best for your family or your best at work if you’re having sleepless nights and have the constant aggrovation of experiencing pain? I don’t think you can be. And for this patient tonight, within about 12 minutes we had him completed sorted and free of the source of his dental infection. If this sounds like you, please take this as encouragement to go get your issue sorted. Sometimes you need to prioritise your own health, and you will feel better for it. 

The last patient had suffered from sleepless nights on and off for months, simply because he didn’t know how to access a dentist. They weren’t registered with a dentist and didn’t know the urgent care services existed. Almost every single area of the UK has an emergency dental service available. If you don’t have your own dentist, you can phone NHS 111 from almost anywhere in Scotland or England to be put in touch with a dentist who will sort out your dental pain. And while it is a good idea to register with a dentist, until you find a suitable clinic to visit, you can get help for your acute dental issues simply and quickly. 

I don’t want you to have dental pain. You don’t want you to have dental pain. If you are experiencing the horrors of toothache, go get it sorted today.