Fear ...of dentists.. or what they might do

I hate going to hospitals and doctors in general and dentists in particular. The smells remind me of unfortunate visits to the hospital for vaccinations, for surgery and most recently for my c-section, and then with Anjali last year.
Reflecting on all these visits to the hospitals and why they are not happy experiences I found that

• I feel i have no control over the situation once we are in their care.

That in itself a good thing because we can surrender completely and let them do their job. After all they are the experts. But the problem comes because I doubt their expertise and fear that they may not take sufficient care or they may not know what to do and then I might suffer as a result.

• I subscribe to the general belief that doctors are very "commercial" and prescribe medicines even when they are not required. And do not care about the side effects on your body. They only address the symptoms and not the cause.( Usually, these days you do meet some holistic and supportive doctors too)
  

The same with dentists. there's no way of knowing whether your dentist is efficient and reassuring or not till you have experienced it. And then it might be too late.. jumping out of a dentist's chair because you don't like the way he's pulling your tooth might be impossible, just as getting out of hospital and saying no to a painful diagnostic procedure on a 2 year old is.(However in this case, I feel i did not trust myself and let Anjali down because I wanted to say a 'no' for this procedure but gave in to the 'pressure' of the doctor) I wish I could rewind and do it differently.

By now, it is clear that I have a fear of many things including a fear of dentists and dental treatments based on stories of other people ( my mother's dentist pulled out a wrong tooth!), about dentists unable to pull out a tooth despite using all their strength, my own experience of a dentist warning me of dire consequences if i didn't pull out certain teeth . May have been a fair warning , i don't know but i have lived for 20 years after that incident and took some homoeopathy for it. I don't know if pulling my teeth out then would have had a positive effect on my life and health since, but i didn't do it precisely because i was put off by their 'god-like' prophecy ... do it now or else.
My latest visit to the dentist
Coming back to the present, i visited a dentist for a checkup and was told that i would need extraction and that i could come on monday next. I said ok and postponed it for a few weeks out of fear of the pain involved, how will i manage my work etc... Finally one monday, i pushed myself through a lot of resistance and went to the dentist hoping to get out after a check up and schedule the extraction for later. But the doctor was available and decided to go for it. Seeing me clutching my hands and the panic on my face, they reassured me and got started. The whole thing took about 5 minutes and i hardly felt anything! Why did I put this thing off and suffer so much from the 'what-ifs'? I thought, anyway the pain will start after the anesthetic wears off... that never happened either... wow, is it some new technology or was it always like this for everyone or is it me? Has my consciousness changed to allow pain-free experiences? Well, whatever, i've lost my fear of dentists and learnt that when you fear something, do it at the earliest...cuts down the worry part and its over! Also i have now changed my beliefs about the kind of doctors I encounter in my life(if i need to)!