I hadn't been sure if I should or not - if it was a big enough issue, but after he'd poked around a bit, just figuring out what he was going to be doing (and before he decided he wanted another x-ray) I realized that I really did need to tell him about it, because it was already being a problem. His first reaction was "okay, then I don't think I'm going to use the rubber dam, 'cause if he starts choking I won't be able to get it off right away. He had no problems at all with the situation, or with taking breaks occasionally just so that I could swalllow or get my coordination back or whatever. He and his assistant were also good about suctioning so I wasn't choking as much as I would've otherwise been. Especially with the additional water from the lack of the use of the dam.

There were only a few incidents where I did choke, one where some of the freezing got into the back of my throat and in trying to avoid swallowing it, I wound up in a major choking fit, but it owkrd out okay, and they were really good about giving me kleenex and space and time and everything... oh, and we found out that trying to drink water when one's mouth is halfway frozen is a REALLY BAD IDEA!! (even though it sounded good at the time ...until I tried it.) I guess I really do need to know where things are in order to be able to coordinate them, and you can't do that with freezing in! I later learned at home that I could drink as long as I used a straw and the unfrozen part of my mouth. (good thing we couldn't take that one tooth out after all I guess, of I would've have been allowed to use a straw.)

He was really good about the pain thing too - there was one spot that wouldn't freeze, so we couldn't extract the tooth that needs to get extracted, but we're going to try it another time. He was really happy that I kept telling him if something hurt or I needed a break or ...anything. (like to have the chair not tipped back up so fast, or so far or whatever. I kept getting dizzy.) Oddly I didn't have trouble with the chair being tipped back... I don't really know why, but there was one point where I needed it up a bit more, and they were really good about it. We even kept adjusting the temperature in the room because we were in the soundproof room and it has its own fan.

My support person asked them if we could have the lead apron on the entire time after I told her that it helped, and they had no problem with that and the dentist even said he'd done that before for someone else and that it sounded familiar!!! (of course, he's dealt with other autistic patients before, so it wasn't really surprising, but still...)

I guess it really does make all the difference to have someone who's used to dealing with strange people/unusual requests after all!! He even said again how much he LIKED working on me!!! That I made it really easy for him!! There aren't many that will say things like that to a patient with unusual needs!