It’s easy to be smug when I have nothing wrong with my teeth… probably will be less self-assured if toothache comes along… 
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cowards and kids room was wonderful the drill was a giraffes neck and the
drill soundless plus music to choice and toys to play with - who can want
for more?
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It’s a bit like restaurants… you can bet your life that if I recommend a restaurant to someone… the time they try it will be when the chef is away … and they are disappointed…and left wondering why I bothered…
What I am saying, is that there are dentists out there… who are not the monsters of olden days…and I would encourage anyone who is like me (a real scaredy-cat) to go and talk things over, explain their phobias…and keep looking until they find a dentist who makes them feel safe. 
My dentist is in her 20’s I reckon… freshly trained and raring to build up her clientele. Waiting list is 3-4 weeks at the moment… other than emergencies.
In the UK those of a nervous/phobic disposition can easily go online and find a dentist that specializes in such people. That way you can be fairly certain that they will be sympathetic. As far as I’m aware nothing like that exists here…
My OH has used french dentists for years… but when he needed treatment recently…we found his dentist had retired and this youngster was in his place…I plucked up courage to discuss my problems.
You could talk with friends and neighbours to get a recommendation… then go and talk with the dentist…what have you got to lose ??
What have I got to lose? My nerve probably. Actually I have a recommendation from a French neighbour so just need to muster up the courage. The few brits I know go to the same dentist but she’s just retired.
Someone else posted this some time ago…don’t have nightmares…
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That is brutal!
Just tossing my ten-pennyworth into this thread to say that it’s my personal experience that teeth, like all other body tissues, have remarkable powers of healing and regeneration. Dentists don’t tend to like this to be widely known, because they make a living out of surgical intervention on teeth, which can seriously interfere with tooth structure and the natural healing process’
When I was 18 I had a medical examination by a consultant physician as part of my entry into training as a nurse. He declared my teeth to be “perfect”. Three years later I was persuaded to go to the dentist for a check. I needed one filling, I was told, and underwent dental surgery to get it. A year later, I was invited back for check to be told I needed three further fillings. I refused any further treatment, and didn’t visit a dentist again for forty-five years…
At age 79 I still have most of my own adult teeth, three pre-molars have been extracted, three molars have filings that are donkey’s years old,. They aren’t pretty but they are fully functional and give me no trouble.
I’ve never had sugar in my tea, and didn’t eat a sweet until I was twelve.
My advice, don’t obsess about what your teeth look like, avoid sugary drinks and eat fresh vegetables. Chew bones unless you’re a veggie. Don’t believe the dental hygiene perfect-smile and stale-breath propaganda.
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No, need one here.
I refer all dental enquiries to my response of three years ago, written under my then heading @anon64861675 when I self-furloughed to calm down a tad 
, as I sometimes do…
I still think it was a pearl of wisdom, and that Dentists are the Devil’s spawn and what you deserve for decades of sugary delinquency, most of you. Eating sweet pap makes dentists rich beyond the dreams of Crœsus.
At 82 I still have a gobful of strong serviceable slicing, tearing, grinding gnashers with exemplars of all types in both jaws, incisors, canines, premolars and molars. Not flashy, but who cares who judges my mouth? Vanity, pure and simple.
I pull my own teeth when they very occasionally get wobbly. Haven’t visited a dentist since 1982: bad mistake.
A bit unfair there Peter. I have genetic/ congenital issues plus birth injuries. I have had surgery and orthodontics,not through vanity or self inflicted problems but necessity
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A less than responsible over-generalisation on my part, Eddie, and I owe you an apology. Sorry to you and others in similar plight, including children who are at the mercies of their reckless and heedless parents (categorically not your own) in the matter of oral hygiene and nutrition.
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My mother was a dentist, several of her friends were dentists. They were all lovely, and gentle. I used to play in the surgery after school and found it a happy friendly place (we lived upstairs). They are not evil people at all, just trying to help you live an orally pain-free life.
We were never allowed sweets or fizzy drinks, so my teeth were intact until I left home and got into bad ways. My mother was so cross with me when I had to have my first filling!
Somehow I feel, like snakes, that dentists have been demonised unfairly.
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In your experience do dental nurses exist in France ?
Yes, my dentist has two of them as he works two surgeries at once.