I have raging, throbbing anxiety.

I need to go to the dentist. Pretty badly, I think – I can see .. things. In my mouth. Things that probably shouldn’t be there; things that would make a dentist say “tsk tsk” with dollar signs in his eyes. I’ve never had stellar oral health, and it’s bad enough right now that I KNOW I need to go to the dentist and I’ve started the process to make this happen instead of just thinking it really hard.

Dentists scare me. I haven’t been to a dentist in probably 8 years; that’s how much I hate going. I’m fairly certain I need a root canal, which is one of the many reasons I so very very very much don’t want to do this. It’s going to hurt, and it’s going to cost money. It’ll be uncomfortable, and there will be drilling. And needles. Multiple of each, because my teeth are probably going to require multiple visits to fix all the problems. I think there are bad things going on under my crown – they may have to pry it off. All of this terrifies me, and I DON’T WANT TO.

But I must. I don’t like having tooth pain. I don’t like being afraid to open my mouth; to think that terrible things are going on in there that will require sacrifice to deal with. I am a selfish creature; I don’t do sacrifice well. I am scared, okay. The dentist gives me nightmares.

Help? :(