which is worse: a dental exam or a gynecological exam?

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I'm not asking as a joke . Which is worse? Both are so horribly invasive.

I have terrible teeth, so I am lucky I don't have a problem with the dentist - I don't like it, but it doesn't freak me out - except root canals because I can feel the little instruments up in my jaw and I have to not think about that . . .

However, I dearly hate gynocological exams - I mean, I won't have one - I think I may have ovary problems and I don't care - I just can't stand the thought . . . I panic, which makes it all the worse . . .

I despise & dread both of these types of medical situation. Having my bodily integrity violated drives me bonkers, feels so threatening & wrong. Horrors ! Can barely suppress/override my emotional/sensation reactions in order to do "what I'm supposed to do", to submit my body for torture voluntarily (not to mention pay for the pain). Know intellectually that doctors mean to dispense health, promote healing, repair or ameliorate sickness/affliction. Can't get in touch with that knowledge when I'm submerged in intense feelings of emotion & sensation.
Only reason I'd say the dental is definately worse is because (in my experience) at dentist I always get bad news. It's true that I do need lots more dental work, too scared to follow through-so things seriously deteriorate.
At gynecologist I usually get good result, rarely have had complications. The staff at women's clinic are female & seem relatively comforting (with exceptions, of course) & understanding about the discomfort & embarrassment that I verbalize to them during my visit.
I don't procrastinate about getting the annual gyn. exam-but I do avoid the dentist, much to my detriment.
I might have answered differently 10 years ago, before I had major decay-didn't mind dentist visit nearly as much. Also, I was more intimidated by going to gyn. the first few years, by now I'm a bit more "used to" the bizarre ritual of exam.

I would say the dentist. The sounds, the pain, the bright light, the smell. And the dentist talking about this and that, his assistant looking at me like I just fallen off the moon.

But the gynocological exams comes in on a very close second place.

I hate the gynie exam - especially the pap smear - they've now started doing that with something akin to a drill with a toothbrush mounted on the end, and it hurts.

but I have to go or I don't get my script for drugs to keep my periods normal.

I don't like the dentist much but I don't feel as violated because it isn't sexual and invading my "private parts". About the only thing I find embarrasing is whether or not my breath is stinky or not. They're usually pretty forgiving.

Both are equally uncomfortable and painful - but gynie is a lot more humiliating for me - even with a female doctor.

edit: violets are nice - what was I thinking?

Last edited by wobbegong on 19 Aug 2006, 9:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

After thinking about it for the night, I chose dental exam. Usually a gyn exam doesn't include sharp instruments that make you bleed.

I remember one time coming back from the dentist so shaken I couldn't speak for 24 hours.

gyn exam is definitely more awful. Though I tend to dissociate for both.

i have a wonderful OBGYN.. and after you have a baby take it from me that stuff no longer matters.. the dentist on the other hand freAKS me out.. i can not stand him or anyone else touching me in my mouth.. and yes the smells almost make me loose my stomach contents.. my mother in law is a dental hygenist and i beg her not to talk about her work because it freakes me out.. but what upsets me more is the rude comments she makes about her patients if they are not up to her standards.. I have not had dental coverage in 15 years so a trip to the dentist is something of a luxury.. the obgyn is covered under my insurance.

I had two sons and other gynecological issues and still the gynecological exams freak me out...

Definitely the gynecological exam. It's uncomfortable and I always have minor bleeding after the Pap smear. Even with a female doctor, it's uncomfortable, but I have to go every year to get an annual refill for my birth control pills.

Right now, I don't have dental insurance so I consider a visit a luxury. The only problem is that my dentist finds something to work on during every visit, at the last checkup, I had a filling replaced.

I hate that they won't give you birth control if you don't let them do Pap smears. It's so evil. I've actually gotten pregnant in the past because going to the gyn stresses me out so much that I just didn't refill my birth control.

In the category of good news about this though, is that the doctor at Planned Parenthood told me that whichever council or group of doctors that sets the "standards" is now trying to set up new rules for Pap smears. Supposedly it's going to be that if you've had completely normal Pap smears for 3 years in a row, then you only need to continue getting Pap smears once every 3 years after that.

I hate going. Hate it to the point of nausea and stress. The stress affects my periods to the point that if I make an appointment more than a month in advance (and you know how hard it is to see a Gyn in short order, especially when a male gyn is simply Not An Option) I am pretty much guarantedd to get my period and not be able to go. I'm not adjusting my cycles herbally or through the Pill. I'm irregular and it just happens. Stress will bring on my period, whereas it will delay most other women. My senior year in college, I was so freaked by life in general that I was having a period every 3 weeks. In my last 6 months as a Dilbert I ws doing it every 5 weeks, and for 10-14 days at a time.

But anyway, this particular "maintenance" is so invasive and so uncomfortable that when my insurance company dropped my female Gyn from their list, I quit going. They actually didn't renew the offices contract. They claimed that it was because we had to wait so long to get in, but when you had the ONLY 3 female Gyn's in the area, people are going to have to wait. I haven't gone in over 2 years. I'm trying to get a different insurance company, but it's expensive! (I'm not covered through my job.) I would seriously rather risk dying (from cancer or something icky) than go to a male Gyn.

Have'nt had one but I go with Gyn being worse

I've put off going to an obgyn for years now, because I dread it so much.
Now I don't like to go to the dentist anymore because the last one was snotty about hurting me.

I wonder if it would be possible to do a pap smear on your own? All you would need was the right kind of swab to collect the sample and a microscope to look at it under, and pictures of healthy VS abnormal cells to compare it too. I've seen microscopes for not too much money.

It would be better than not going at all .

unless I was a DR. I would never trust my findings.. i think the labs do much more that what we realize with the pap. after you have watched someone die of cervical cancer I think the pain means so little.. i think what is much worse is the mamogram.. but once again knowing someone who went thru breast cancer you know how important the roles of the tests are.. i have never bled from a pap smear and in the big picture of it all the pap smear takes so little time its worth it.