Feel free to ignore this entirely. I said before that, if I felt brave enough, I would show you the extent of the dental issues I had that led to my full dental clearance surgery.
Under the cut you'll find the picture of my teeth a week before extraction, and a picture of my mouth 3 days after. TRIGGERS FOR - Blood/Dental decay/Stitches
I am well aware of the state my mouth was in. Largely, it was down to self neglect but not out of not brushing my teeth, out of fear of the dentist being so strong that small issues were left to become absolutely rampant and unfixable. Dental phobia is never really talked about because it's seen as "everyone hates the dentist" - this was more than that. Hours of crying, hours of hying up just to call to speak to someone without even stepping into a dentist. Not to mention living with the dental decay, pain, and visual representation of the mess I was in. The picture of my teeth prior to extraction looks like those of a long term meth addict. I am not proud of it, but I know that's how it looked and I'm aware that that sounds flippant.
It took being terrified of endocarditis (as I already have heart disease/malformations from birth) to make me agree to the extractions. I didn't want to die and leave my sons without their mum. The fear/phobia was/is that profound.
You're welcome to think what you do - as I said I know what they looked like and I hated it myself. But I just want to show how far someone with dental phobia can progress before things are "bad enough" to accept help.
So, under the cut is my before and after surgery. Look if you like, and by all means have your opinions. I'm sure I've heard them all before! But also if you have any questions, then ask.
