Dentist can't numb me

Sncjw

Hi all

Last week I went to dentist to get my new dentures and she mentioned shall we do the filling now. I was like what filling and she ment on a tooth that was slightly broke but she never mentioned it the previous week.

Anyways I'm back tommorow to get the filling done but when I got home last week I remembered they couldn't numb that side the last time I had a tooth extraction on that side and had to be referred to a dental hospital. They tried three times on one appointment as they couldn't give more than three and asked to come back again and another dentist was there to assit but still couldn't get that numb. Anyways I waited a while to get my appointment at dental hospital and he managed straight away.

I'm just worried they won't be able to numb it again as its a new dentist I see due to old one left. I forgot to mention it to her and will do so tommorow. I'm a lot better at getting the injection as I used to shake like mad but if I take hearing aid out I'm totally fine.

Hermia

I would tell the dentist before they start anything so they can make a decision before they start treatment.

I have an area of my mouth like that and my dentist did once give me a long explanation about the odd anatomy of my mouth. It whooshed over me head! If I need that part of my mouth treated I get a longer appointment and he spends ages numbing me up. It doesn't completely go numb, but enough that I can tolerate the odd twinge.

jenniewb

Sncjw wrote: »

Hi all

Last week I went to dentist to get my new dentures and she mentioned shall we do the filling now. I was like what filling and she ment on a tooth that was slightly broke but she never mentioned it the previous week.

Anyways I'm back tommorow to get the filling done but when I got home last week I remembered they couldn't numb that side the last time I had a tooth extraction on that side and had to be referred to a dental hospital. They tried three times on one appointment as they couldn't give more than three and asked to come back again and another dentist was there to assit but still couldn't get that numb. Anyways I waited a while to get my appointment at dental hospital and he managed straight away.

I'm just worried they won't be able to numb it again as its a new dentist I see due to old one left. I forgot to mention it to her and will do so tommorow. I'm a lot better at getting the injection as I used to shake like mad but if I take hearing aid out I'm totally fine.

I had something similar with a Dentist I now no longer see who I'd otherwise describe as Lector. (as in Hannibal). She gave me so many injections I lost count (realistically I think I lost count at around 6 or 7 and I was shaking by then) she was trying to kill the nerve and wanted to numb my mouth before she tried. But it didn't numb! I had no feeling around the tooth but not in the tooth nerve itself, so she proceeded to stab at it saying that the appointment time was running out. I could see the blood on her hands, I could taste the blood at the back of my throat and yes it did hurt a hell of a lot. She said she had killed it- I still feel things on that tooth and it got infected a few times after then so I am doubtful she did anything other than stab me with a serrated knife? Dagger? (despite not trying to look it looked huge from the corner of my eye!)


I have had problems since in the same area- a few infections, a tooth which needed a crown and root canal. None were a problem to be made numb. It was later found out I have an issue with a particular anaesthetic and so this anaesthetic is no longer used- a different type which can be used takes a little longer to react but doesn't give me the same headache-of-side-effects for the next few days/weeks but even that works.


I had wondered if the anaesthetic wasn't able to get to the right tooth or something or if there was something wrong with me- I now think it was all in the application and that the Dentist who I had seen has since moved on and perhaps she had been picked up on something because my experience could not have been an isolated incident! If I can go back to the Dentist for more then I think anyone can! It isn't easy when you've had a poor experience but a bad experience once or even twice doesn't mean every following experience will follow the same way. Please don't worry and please talk to your dentist about your worries first.

jaybeetoo

Talk to the dentist before he starts.

If anasthetic is a problem you could find a dentist that does hypnosis. Many years ago I had hypnosis instead of anaesthetic and it worked for me.

Sncjw

Thanks all I will tell dentist. I'm wondering if this happend because of my hearing loss on that side too. My ear is just dead on that side. My old dentist she was lovely and she spent time calming me down and I went with my mam as I couldn't hear anything and because dentist was behind me my mam could gesture what to do.
I was told sometimes it just happens that you can't numb people. The dentist at the dental hospital said he doesn't do fillings as they requested that when I went. He doesn't do it because he hasn't done it for ages.

Oh Hannibal lector doesn't sound like a good dentist. I'm sure they would have a pain module in their training, when I was student nurse we did a module about pain and found a quote that pain is what the patient perceives and we can't tell people they aren't in pain.

Toothsmith

There are times when even the best dentists can't get a tooth fully numb.

If there is a raging infection around a tooth, or if the nerve has got itself particularly inflamed & painful, then it can be almost impossible - no - impossible to get full profound numbness.

Coupled with that, patients with particularly nasty infections, or particularly painful teeth have often not slept, or have got themselves particularly stewed up about their dental visit - and anxiety drops people's pain threshold right down!

If you can at least get a dressing into such a painful tooth - then it can really speed up the time that that tooth will settle down, and you can get in and treat it properly - but for some people even trying to get a dressing into it can be really nasty - and you get accused of being 'Hannibal Lecter'! So there it's often better to do nothing - knowing the patient will still be in pain for a while. (This is where sometimes, some dentists even give antibiotics - even though they do no good for inflamed pulps that aren't infected But it gets rid of the patient - and when the pain starts to get better in a couple of days anyway (as the nerve dies) patients think it's the antibiotics 'working'!)

Anyway - all these situations are miles away from just a chipped - symptom free tooth that just needs a simple filling. This should numb up no problem at all, and be fixed without a problem! (Unless you get so keyed up and anxious that you'll jump at anything!)