Ideas for the type of music to listen to while the dentist is going to work in your mouth?

December 17, 2008 12:00 PM

I'm going to get a gum graft Friday and I'd like to know your opinion on the type of music would be good to listen to while I'm being worked on.

I was originally thinking a podcast but I'm worried that it may have silent time where I could hear the drills or cutting, anyone had a similar problem?

Also if anyone has had a gum graft before if they have any tips to handle the situation while I'm being worked on would be great!

posted by spacesbetween to Health & Fitness (16 answers total)

Best answer: I get totally squicked about medical stuff and very anxious about it. They refused to give me Valium or laughing gas -- just Novacaine, which I also panic about getting -- so the only thing that helped me through was yoga-type breathing (concentrating very carefully on in-through-the-nose, out-through-the-mouth, counting seconds of breath). It got me to go from sobbing before they started to kind of giggling at the weird feeling of something threaded through my gum tissue (while they were sewing me up).

No particular recommendations on music. I'd think an NPR podcast like "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me" would help... something where I really have to listen/concentrate.

Good luck!
posted by olinerd at 12:11 PM on December 17, 2008

olinerd's suggestion about stuff you have to concentrate on is a good one, so I would suggest language lessons.

But it seems like you're most concerned about silent time, so I would suggest music that is seamless, like long-playing DJ mixes. I've been playing Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals" constantly, and there are almost no silent parts, so that's what I'd go with.
posted by jeffmshaw at 12:15 PM on December 17, 2008

I would definitely avoid anything that might make you laugh. Never had a gum graft, but I just imagine that would not be a good thing at all.

I would go with relaxing music and try to zone out as much as possible. I happen to like kirtan , which is readily available on iTunes.
posted by charmcityblues at 12:18 PM on December 17, 2008

Best answer: Gum grafts are annoying and take time but they have been [in my experience having been with someone who had them, not having had them myself] they're usually not as painful as other root-canal type of procedures but they're longer. So... I'd make sure that in addition to bringing some good music you also bring sunglasses [if the dentist doesn't provide them] which you can wear which will let you zone out more. Keep caffeine to a minimum before the procedure and you'll be less jumpy. I also bring something with me for afterwards because by the time I've gotten ready to go to the dentist and have gone and waited etc, I'm often STARVING when I get out, so I bring a smoothie or something simple to drink (or yogurt) so I'm not ravvenous. My opinion is that any nice repetitive soothing music would likely be good for this, maybe a mix CD of work music or drum and bass type stuff.
posted by jessamyn at 12:34 PM on December 17, 2008

Brian Eno -Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy
posted by bonobothegreat at 12:49 PM on December 17, 2008

Also: I don't think there were any drills involved. It was just sharp things. There really wasn't anything to hear.

And I do have to agree with jessamyn... as panicked and freaked out as I was, it really was a relatively painless procedure (never had a root canal, though from what I hear I imagine it's much worse). It was very sore afterward -- they prescribed me Vicodin, but I only took some ibuprofin and I was fine -- and the putty-like "bandage" that they put on it was really annoying. But it didn't have lots of high pitched drills or anything like when I'm getting a cavity filled.
posted by olinerd at 1:06 PM on December 17, 2008

I'm a horrible dental procedure veteran. Not a gum graft, though. Probably any day now. My solution is 1 to 2 Xanax and an iPod filled with music of the rougher variety, depending on what you like. I enjoyed the magical sounds of both the Pogues and James Brown during a recent trip.

The Xanax -- it's not something I take very often, in fact, I can't remember the last time I took it for something other than a trip to the dentist (which I'm now totally neurotic about) -- but Xanax to me is the crown jewel of modern moderately recreational pharmaceuticals and has really smoothed the edges on my dental experience.

The oral surgeon/endodontist/dentist/hygienist usually comments about what a good patient I am.

Just high, folks.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 1:12 PM on December 17, 2008

I really disagree with the people recommending relaxing music -- but I guess it depends on how you respond to stress generally. I like music that really kind of wipes the room away, anything soothing would have too much white space in it -- the machinery whine fills in the space between notes.

Shudder.

Dentists.

But if you can be soothed by that which is soothing more power to you. I can only be soothed by, like, sandpaper.


(That metaphor tipped over. )
posted by A Terrible Llama at 1:16 PM on December 17, 2008

Do not do what I did at the dentist once and choose Steve Earle. When the first song you hear, lying terrified in the dentist chair, is 'Cocaine Cannot Kill My Pain' you know it's not going to be good.

I tend to prefer something loud or complex - classic rock music or something like Chopin or Liszt - to block out the outside noises and make me concentrate.
posted by essexjan at 1:20 PM on December 17, 2008

Mod note: stop with the lulz, thanks
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:58 PM on December 17, 2008

Ask for lots of nitrous, and early Pink Floyd. Seconding bonobothegreat's Eno recommendation, too.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:07 PM on December 17, 2008

NIN -To The Teeth is loud enough to drown out any pain or thoughts of pain, lol.
posted by Cosine at 2:14 PM on December 17, 2008

Won't you be knocked out? I would also think that ear phones of any sort would get in your periodontist's way.

I had a gum graft this summer with IV sedation, it was 45 minutes long, but it seemed to have only lasted a minute and I didn't remember a thing during the procedure.
posted by delladlux at 3:52 PM on December 17, 2008

Best answer: I had a gum graft this summer - good luck, I hope your recovery is smooth! There will not be much in the way of noise unless you're having a different procedure from mine, so blank spots in the noise are probably not that big a deal. My dentist had a bunch of CDs to pick from and I went with classic jazz and that was fine, sound-wise.

I did not have enough anesthesia and they had to stop and re-apply partway through, and that really sucked. I kind of suspected going in that I was not numb enough but didn't speak up, and I wish I had, because the experience was a lot worse for me than it needed to be. I would definitely recommend that you be vocal about what you need to be comfortable (mentally and physically) during the experience.
posted by Stacey at 3:54 PM on December 17, 2008

I just had my wisdom teeth removed, and brought my ipod in with me. I wanted constant music, with as little silent time as possible. I decided that louder, more rock-ish, music would work better than mellower, folky stuff. My playlist worked beautifully for what I wanted from it.

Here is what I listened to:
Alive - Creature
Banquet - Bloc Party
Black Mirror - The Arcade Fire
Creator Vs. Switch & Freq Nasty - Santogold
Dancing Choose - TV on the Radio
Dashboard - Modest Mouse
Girl Anachronism - The Dresden Dolls
Gold For Bread - Blitzen Trapper
Halfway Home - TV on the Radio
Helicopter - Bloc Party
Jigsaw Falling Into Place - Radiohead
Leeds United - Amanda Palmer
Lovecraft In Brooklyn - The Mountain Goats
Magick - The Klaxons
March Into The Sea - Modest Mouse
Monster (RAC Remix) - You Say Party! We Say Die!
Monsters - Matchbook Romance
My Alcoholic Friends - The Dresden Dolls
No Cars Go - The Arcade Fire
No Sex for Ben - The Rapture
Paper Planes - M.I.A.
Pop Culture - Creature
Revolushun - God Made Me Funky
Run [I'm A Natural Disaster] - Gnarls Barkley
Runs in the Family - Amanda Palmer
Secret March - The Wet Secrets
Shores Of California - The Dresden Dolls
Sleepytime in the Western World - Blitzen Trapper
Time to Pretend - MGMT
To Hell with Good Intentions - mclusky
Working Together - Gonzales
You'll Find A Way - Santogold
Your Cover's Blown - Belle & Sebastian
15 Step - Radiohead
posted by arcticwoman at 9:06 PM on December 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I had the procedure and I agree with the others that it's not really a loud procedure. It's pretty much painless but you do realize and know that they are inside of your mouth cutting it up. I ended up having a mix of music, some loud rock, pop, and some jazz. I ended up choosing some pop or something with lyrics so I could sing in my head and keep my mind off them cutting me up!
posted by spacesbetween at 8:54 PM on January 19, 2009