Yay Drugs! Woo woo drugs!
The dentist seems to have actually cogitated about the situation during the two weeks since my horrible horrible crown-making experience, so he gave me nitrous oxide this morning when he put the permanent crown in. It didn't make me goofy at all (it was a mix of nitrous & oxygen designed to keep me calm but not knock me out or make me sleepy--I guess they can also knock you out with it). It also didn't take away all of my anxiety - not nearly. BUT it made it so that my usual dental-anxiety-management tricks actually worked. Those tricks include: breathe through my nose, close eyes, think about pleasant things, pinch myself (to redirect my brain to a different part of my body), wiggle toes. When I started being afraid that I'd choke, at one point (they have to pack some cotton around the tooth to keep it dry while they work, ech) I reminded myself that I had an oxygen mask over my nose, so it didn't matter if I could breathe through my mouth anyway. So, yay. He also said that he can have me take a valium an hour before a particularly tough procedure. So I think I may stick with this guy, even though it took 5 shots of novacaine to numb me this time! But I'll decide that a little later.
Thanks to all for the tips & encouragement...I'm SO glad I'm done with this freakin' thing.
