Dental Nerves

So I've had quite a few dental procedures done in my life to the point where going to the dentist causes great anxiety. Anyways, today I had a filling done in my right front tooth. During the filling my dentist goes "oh no that's the pulp" and of course it gave me a mini heart attack because I know you should never see your pulp. She then proceeded to get the rest of the decay out and give me a pulp cap and liner. The bleeding stopped (By my nerve) which she said was a good sign but it's still unsure whether or not I'll need a root canal. The tooth is hurting right now so I just took some medicine but boy am I nervous, I really do not want a root canal :x

Anyone have experience with pulp caps and root canals?

I had one done today. Much to my surprise it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But then again I was numbed with eight shots, so that probably helped. I would suspect that if your still feeling pain when they're doing the root canal that they would give you another shot until it barely hurts or doesn't hurt at all?
I get anxious sometimes too when I go to the dentist. Today I had a terrible stomach ache from it, and being put "upside down" didn't help at all. I did however bring my blanket, snuggling companion (tod the fox! ❤) and my earbuds. Listening to music eased my conciousness a bit. And then I started to relax after that. So maybe that would help you? I also stayed up all night last night so I would be tired when I was at the dentist, and a couple times I wanted to fall asleep. 
I used to hypervenalate as a kid when I got fillings. I did not like the idea of having a bunch of contraptiins in my mouth. But luckily through a couple years of experience with panick attacks, I was able to keep myself from doing that. 
My best advice is to breath, not think about it, talk to somebody about it just before, and just relax yourself. Tell yourself it is going to be okay, and it won't hurt a cinch. I don't know if this would work for tou, but with me, if I'm nervous about something, I imagine myself as someone I'm not. Mostly someone who is strong-hearted, brave, and can take on a thousand orks and not get killed. ;P 

Hope this advise helped! 

I know that may sound cheesy, but I've noticed that the cheesy things are the most effective when you are scared, anxious, etc

^{They have to knock me out for any procedures as I hate dental work being done, and will have panic attacks on the chair. Cleanings are fine, but fillings, tooth removals, root canals, and the like I'd have to be completely knocked out for it. My mouth is also very small, so they really have to pry it open, and it's quite painful. Laugh gas doesn't work on me anymore, so now they use an IV filled with knock out juice as I call it. Yes, I know what it's called, but the dentists and I think it's funny to call it knock out juice or knock out liquid.} 

^{I'm in bad need of dental work, some removals, caps, crowns, and braces would be nice. But, can't afford it, and I'm not looking for to the teeth brushing lecture and the "This is all your fault" lecture I always get. It's not my fault I have Dyspraxia that makes it difficult for me to brush my teeth properly >.<.} 

^{Anyways, enough of my ranting. I wish you the best of luck, and feel free to rant to me about dentist scaring the crap out of you during visits or what your results are. I don't think I've had a root canal before, but if I did I wasn't awake for it.} 

i had a cavity filled about 6 months or so ago and i am the same way, i start panicking, sweating, i get really really nervous, when i had my filling i remember telling the dentist to get out of the room, yelled and screamed at him over a filling, my mom had to come in the room 😂, i really really really hate dental work, i had to be put under a good amount of laffy gas ( idk if thats how you spell it) to calm me down. I think that i hate the shots the most because i dont know when they are coming even if they count down i cant see it happen and i dont like that feeling. My dentist typically has a TV on in the room and you can pick what you like to watch, so that kinda helps. but if i were to have any proceedure more serious than a filling i think i would have to be put out. Just try not to think of it i guess, maybe some calming music or tunes might help like other people suggested?

I had root canal done not to long ago (like 2 months ago) on one of my molars. It wasn't as bad as everyone makes it seem. It was maybe 1 hour long but doesn't feel that long. The worst thing about mine was the needle to numb my gums. It hurt, like a needle would, and the dentist doing it was a rude man ao he was rough with the needle. I did bleed to much one time when they went to do the impression, so they filled in it with temporary filler and rescheduled me to a different day to get an impression. I also have Temporomandibular joint dysfunction which can cause my jaw to hurt so holding my mouth open that long caused some aching (more than there should be after a root canal) because of it. But overall it was not bad atleast my experience. 

I havent had any caps put in or root canals, I have had teeth pulled. My first dentist, he was an idiot, did things wrong and didn't inform me that if you still feel things you can ask for more Novocaine, so my first fillings hurt soooo bad, as I have come to find out that I need at least two shots before hand and usually one mid whatever is being done to keep me numb enough not to feel anything.

I loved my second dentist, she was amazing loved her, my only complaint with her is that she thought we should leave my wisdom teeth in and so far the only one that has completely broken through came in rotten (she said to leave them in because they were coming straight).

My third dentist I only saw once and that was to get a tooth pulled. Thanks to idiot first dentist I had a tooth rot from the inside out. That guy/place was amazing and so when I had another tooth that needed pulling, I immediately called there. I couldnt remember the name of the third guy but I assumed they had me on record and I would get him again. Last time, all they had done was take a look at it and were like yep, your right that needs to be pulled. This time I got my fifth dentist and he was terrible. First we had to do the "fun" X-rays with those things that jab into your gum even before you bite down, then he came in and basically lectured me about how I needed to take better care of my teeth, etc (this is another tooth that rotted from the inside from the filling first dentist put in) and his tone is what almost made me cry (plus pain from the tooth obvs). Even though I was in pain (this was in February of 2016) he was like sucks to be you, come back in August and we'll do a cleaning and then discuss what we will do with your tooth, prescribed me nothing and then we get a call in March how he is leaving that place in June or July and so far they don't have another dentist ready to take his place. This was a place I had to drive three hours to get to any so I was like thats okay I can live with it.

My fourth dentist was generally okay, gave me a mini lecture, but he pulled the wisdom tooth that came in rotten. My only complaint with him is that when he gave me my Novocaine shot, he hit a vein or nerve (I can't recall which, I just looked it up later to find out what happened) and it triggered my fight or flight instincts, made my vision blurry/made it so I couldnt focus my eyes real well, and I had to force myself to breath normally. Apparently I did pretty good at that, because it took him a few minutes to ask if I was okay and because I didn't want to be a bother/was worried he wouldnt pull the tooth if I told him what happened so I just said I was fine. Have to say though, that was the first time I stayed numb through the whole thing and beyond XD generally at the end of anything the mid shot is wearing off as well.

Oh and that tooth the fifth dentist didn't want to pull? Still in my mouth. I haven't had the funds to go back and thankfully it isnt bothering me now, although in some cases it will. If I'm eating something hard and it jabs into the hole a few times it will throb for the rest of the day, if I eat grapefruit same thing (I haven't had any in two years and its sad because I love it!)  and when one of my wisdom teeth moved a few months ago (which generally just causes an ache for a few days where all you want to eat is soft stuff, for me anyways) it made me want to rip off that side of my face, the ache from the wisdom tooth caused that tooth to just explode with pain. Pain killers just took away the worst of it and the only time I truly felt comfortable was when I was asleep, it took about a week for things to calm down so I really hope that before it moves again I can get this stupid thing pulled.