I’m on methadone for an opioid addiction. My regular dentist refuses to give me any pain medication because of my addiction. Because of that, I’ve been avoiding the dentist. But, I’m in pain from doing that too. I’m afraid to go to the dentist. Is there any way to find a dentist who’d be willing to treat me as a person and not just see me as an addict?

Emmie

Dear Emmie,

You are in a tough spot, but I think I can help you. What you don’t want to do is ignore the pain you are in. Pain is a sign of a problem and you likely have a dental emergency on your hands.

The attitude you find yourself bumping up against is fear. It is not fear of you. It’s fear of the DEA. They have been cracking down on any type of pain administration. Dentists are afraid to do anything which can throw up a red flag and draw attention to themselves.

Many dentists are compassionate and want to help but that fear is getting in the way. It doesn’t mean there isn’t a dentist out there who will help.

You’ll have more success if you look for a dentist uses sedation. They understand patients with dental anxiety. Some of their patients have severe anxiety. You can look them up with the terms sedation dentist or cater to cowards dentist. These are the dentists who will be more likely to work with you.

Benefits to Dental Sedation

What most people think of with dental sedation is the fact that they can have a pain-free dental appointment. That’s true. But there is another benefit too. If you use oral conscious sedation, your dentist will be able to get significantly more work done in each appointment.

This allows you to catch up on all that work you haven’t been able to get done because of your dentist’s concerns over your previous addiction.

This blog is brought to you by Kalamazoo Sedation Dentist Dr. Susan Dennis.