“Fear? - What Fear?, Phobia? - What Phobia?”

Growing up in the sixties in the West of Scotland meant a bad diet for your teeth, lots of sweets, jeely pieces and sugary drinks (remember cremola foam). This of course led to fillings and regular check ups at the dentist. I didn’t want to go but I had no option, Mum would take me from school every few months and that was that. Then when I was old enough to choose, I stopped going. I left home, got married, and had a family, who all go regularly to the dentist leaving me the big coward. “I’ll go when I need to go,” I said and that’s just what I did.

I looked after my teeth as best I could; I flossed, brushed and removed as much sugar from my diet as I could. And it worked for a while. Then about 12 years ago I started getting toothache on an incisor, not a front tooth but the one beside it. I put up with the pain which came and went over the next year or so, but during this time the tooth turned black and it also affected the front tooth and the canine either side of it. Then one day the bad tooth broke clean off at the gum line. I did not get time to worry too much about it as my wife made an emergency appointment at her dentist.

I went along and he told me I needed 4 visits for RCT and some fillings and a crown. He would start that day on the RCT and a temporary crown. I told him I was scared of needles and asked if he could use the cream that numbs the gums, but I was told that he only used that with babies. That was the start of the problems. My anxiety seemed to make him angry, he told me he did not have time for all this nonsense, he was brutal with the needle, and did things like freeze you up then sit you in the waiting room until you were called, then he had to jag you again because of the time lapse. There was always a big queue and long waits and regular problems with unhappy patients to witness, which all added to the anxiety.

Anyway if the temporary crown had stayed in I might never have gone back, but I finished the treatment with each visit being more frightening than the last. Then I went back to avoiding the dentist until about 2 years ago. The small back of the tooth filling he had done on the canine fell out. It would have meant 5 minutes in the chair but I was so terrified of the dentist by now that I ignored it even though I knew it could lead to hours of RCT and false teeth etc, the phobia was now in control and all rational thinking was gone. Then about 6 months later a filling on my front tooth broke, I ignored it, I hid it, I stopped smiling. Over a few months the tooth slowly crumbled until there was little left. I developed a lisp I avoided socialising and I had sleepless night knowing what I had to do.

I had to find the right dentist, decision made but still I delayed, I’ll do it after the holidays, I’ll do it after Christmas etc. People had noticed the missing tooth but few commented, so I owned up “look what’s happed to my front tooth, I’ve got an appointment next month" I would announce but I was pushing myself into a corner I needed no options where was my mum when I needed her.

Actually she came to the rescue “have you lost a front tooth” yes “well you better get it fixed quickly or you’ll lose all you’re teeth and you wont like that”, that night I found Dr Mike Gows website - www.WhatFear.Com.

It still took me a few weeks to call the number, by this time I was worrying that he would be fully booked and I had convinced myself after reading his website that he was the man, in a panic I made the call. Stage 1, the hardest stage over.

The girl who answered was very nice and understood my phobic problems and a wee while later Mike phoned me and within seconds had me relaxed about the initial visit.

Visit one. This was nothing like my previous dentist it was quiet and relaxed, the smells and the chair where there but somehow they did not phase me, Mike was everything I hoped for, he listened to my fears, the main one being the needles, he told me about the options and he described how he can do pain free injections. “Aye right so you can” I thought, but he was right. There is no reason why my previous dentist could not use gum freezing gel, or explain that the needle is very small and extremely thin and flexible like a hair, or that it cant break off in your gum and if he goes very slow freezing as he goes that you wont feel a thing. Mike even phoned me later that day when I got home to discus my first visit to a dentists for 10 years, I thought that was above and beyond but just typical of the man and very useful from my point of view.

Mike has a laptop on his desk and I noticed on my first 2 visits it said on my notes PHOBIC in big letters and on my 3^rd visit it was changed to anxious and that was right, maybe it now reads slightly anxious in small letters and lets face it going to the dentist isn’t anyone’s favourite pastime but it has to be done.

My teeth are all fixed now I’ve got my smile back and I’m fair chuffed with myself, and I had my six month check up today, no sleepless night, no lack of concentration at work didn’t even get the sweaty palms in the waiting room even though there was a chance that I’d be told that it was time for some of my wisdom teeth to come out. But I was in luck he’ll look again in 6 months, a quick scale and polish and I was away

I have to thank Mike and his staff and if anyone reading this has had similar problems then what you need is your own Dr Mike Gow the pain free dentist.