Thanks for your post. It was just what I needed to read.
I need to get myself to the dentist, and like you have been avoiding it due to fear. My filling fell out about ten / eleven years ago and I've had a massive and very irritating hole in my tooth since then. How it's not got infected I have no idea. I have also recently remembered that I never paid up for that filling being put it either, so I have an amends to make at the same time.