Dental Cavities... Situation thingy. A few questions.?

Okay, I went to the dentist for an examination/cleaning. I haven't exactly been taking care of myself over the years, (I'm currently in my twenties) so I've started a whole campaign to get back in shape before I get too much older and decided to start with my teeth. He took my X-rays and both him and an assistant examined my teeth. By the time they were done conversing with each other, they gave me the verdict: I have 13 cavities. My biggest concern is that he's being dishonest, but that just may be my sense of disbelief. A second opinion isn't really much of an option for me now. I haven't seen a dentist in 5 years and I just discovered my oral hygene methods were ineffective and he's an expierenced dentist with years under his belt, but, my first question is what is the likely hood of dishonesty? My other question is this, and I hope someone with expierence can answer this: will my mouth look like a battlefield by the time it's all done? Thanks in advanced. =)
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You sound just like me haha. I had a massive, massive fear of Dentists. Quite the phobia. I hadn't gone to one in 9 years (really xD) and I let my teeth get into a bad shape. My fear was to the point I couldn't even talk about the dentist, let alone go near the dental surgery (which was on my way to school every morning) without freaking out. It was a really silly thing to do, and looking back now (I've just had my final treatment for my teeth in the 'stage 1' of treatments now, so I'm all good now. xD) I know how stupid I was to not do it, and how good my mouth feels and looks. haha. I had let my teeth (which had cavities) get serious, i'd chiped and fractured a few of my teeth which wasn't so good lol and had periapical abscesses which I let go un-treated for a while. (bad) The reason I firstly went to the dentist after all those years was because of an abscess! I woke up one morning with a giant amount of swelling on my left cheek. I had no pain anywhere near the teeth- so I thought oh what the heck, it's nothign.. I'll just let it go down. it got worse. I waited three days, I went to work and to Uni and it got bigger. People told me to go, and I refused because it didnt' hurt and I tried to reassure myself that it'd go down. finally one day I was at the bus stop, and a dentist happened to be waiting there too. he'd seen me, and noticed I obviously hadn't gone the other three days I'd had this swelling. He told me to go, or it could get extremely serious, and it turned out he was my new dentist at the local surgery because my old dentist (who i hadn't seen in 9 years) had retired. Anywho. Turned out I had an abscess (from the x-ray they could tell) under this molar, that had eaten away the bone in my jaw, and had created a fitsula into my cheek (draining into my cheek) and i was but a day or so away from serious complications like meningitis or blood poisioning. I also had another two abscesses in two other teeth in my jaw in other places, which had to all be subsequently extracted, I had four cavities that needed to be filled and two impacted canine teeth. The likley hood of a dentist putting a patient through that much treatment (or like yourself through 13 different cavitie fillings) for just payment or a simple job is really really rare I'd say. They want to help you. They don't get paid on comission! (unless your in the UK under the NHS scheme, but even then, the comission is a bonus thing on top). I didn't tell you my story for no reason hehehe (incase you're like 'wtf that made no sense) I tell it because I've converted three friends into going to the dentist and actually getting teeth fixed and helped. Don't let it get to the stage. Don't wait, and trust your dentist into letting him/her help you. The dentist not only fixed my teeth- as a student, I couldn't afford to pay the high prices you usually have to for that kind of treatment, and he worked out a payment plan for me, and charged me a tenth of the standard price that people I know have paid at other dental surgerys. If you're not happy with the dentist your with, you can ask for a second opinion, and find another good dentist, but I really do recommend you getting them seen to, and fixed. Good on you for trying to turn this all around and get into a 'health fix'. Trust me, teeth can be a very good start. hehe
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