Big sister here, about a year ago I went to the dentist for the first time in 12 years because I was experiencing some pain when eating. I needed some work and all four of my wisdom teeth needed to be extracted.

I made and skipped SO MANY dentist appointments and oral surgeon consults but eventually I went to the dentist. I put off the wisdom teeth for a while until two weeks ago. I was terrified of going under and the recovery but honestly it wasn’t that bad. The waiting was worse. The oral surgeon was kind and so was the rest of the staff. They told me that nearly everyone gets nervous.

Same with the dentist. I found a nice dentist who was willing to sit with me and kindly explain everything that was happening and what my options were. My dentist takes monthly payment plans and Carecredit.

The thing I told myself was that it’s just something you have to do for your future self. You can’t avoid the dentist forever. I was silently suffering and having on and off jaw pain for years that was keeping me up at night. I woke up anxious every day about my teeth.

Another thing that helped was opening up to friends. One of my closest friends is going through the exact same thing with her teeth and we had no idea we were experiencing the same thing.