First one to diagnose me with TMJ and I’ll be getting an orthotic* for it. He had me hold my hands on the side of my jaw so I could feel how the jaw joint is basically all fucked up (been that way as long as I can remember) and then had me move my jaw in a different way so it didn’t do the clanking that it does and apparently that is what it’s supposed to be like all the time.
And that my friends, is what is and has been fucking up my teeth for most of my life. And no one else was arsed to do something about it, cause, IDK, I guess it guarantees return visits…
But legit the horror on his face as he asked, “OK, you feel your jaw doing that? [Yes] And that’s just…normal for you? [Yup] And it’s not painful? [Nope] Are you one of those people who can’t feel pain?” [Definitely not]
I’m gonna have to have some work done, but it’s definitely cheaper than my last dentist and we’re gonna be trying Valium the night before & Lorazepam the morning of to tackle the anxiety. Given all the various and sundry warnings about it that I had to sign, I asked the gentleman who basically runs everything how bad was this gonna fuck me up, and it seems it’s just like being drunk, so at least that is something I have experience with. And honestly, I’ve often thought it would be ideal to just get hammered before a dental appointment.
And it does make me remember that in my much younger years, there was one time I pounded a rum & coke at lunch before an appointment, and I sailed through it…so, this might work.
Still pissed about decades of dentists ignoring the TMJ, tho.
*Don’t call it a night guard! It does something different! But you do wear it at night! LOL.
Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female. 
You’ll be fine with the benzos! I have to do the same thing, and yeah, you’re just gonna be super loopy. If you’re lucky, you may actually nod off during the appointment, depending on the lorazepam dosage and how long before the appointment you take it.
Make sure someone drives you to/from, and also get a lot of fiber and water for a couple days because they’re notorious for painful constipation if you don’t.
So glad you’ve found the right dentist, yaaay!
Thank you for the info!! I’ve taken Valium once before an appointment but I was so weirded out by the idea that I walked to the appointment (it’s like a mile away from my house) and I am pretty sure I burned it all off during the walk, LOL. I’ve never taken Lorazepam before, so I am kinda nervous about it – if they had just prescribed 3 shots of Jaeger before the appointment, I’d know exactly what to expect, LOL.
The one time I did full sedation, whatever pre-appointment pill they gave me (and I cannot for the life of me remember what is was) that was supposed to relax me had the exact opposite effect and I was fully on edge, and angry. I did tell the new dentist about this, seems I am in a very small percentage of people that happens to (LUCKY ME) and I guess whatever I took that didn’t work must not have been Lorazepam, cause I can’t imagine he’d prescribe something that would make me want to take a swing at him.
Little bro will be playing chauffeur for the morning, and at least since it’s only 5 minutes away, he doesn’t have to sit in the waiting room the whole time.