FYI dentists stopped using novocaine decades ago. They all use lidocaine now. But they don’t bother to tell anyone what they use so everyone just assumes it’s novocaine.
He mentioned a hair test. Would it remain in your hair for weeks or months?
Specifically, if lidocaine has such a short half-life, would any detectable amount ever get into your hair in the first place?
Most local anesthetic used by dentists in this country is now Septocaine(Articaine) IIRC something like 60%. In Europe I believe it is something like 90%. Lidocaine is number two. Septocaine if more lipidophillic, therefore works better than lidocaine.
Haven’t been able to buy Novocaine by itself in a dental carpule sine before I started 29 years ago. Could buy it in combination with another anesthetic I think into the late 90’s.
I think it is like so many other things. Everyone Xeroxes someting no mater what brand of dry process copier they use and blow their nose with a Kleenex no matter what tissue they really use. I think Novocaine as a local anesthetic is the same way.
Ah good catch. I know nothing about the biochemistry, but I would guess that if it did get into your hair it might stay there until the hair was cut, since no metabolism happens in the hair itself. But there would probably only be about a day or two during which it would be possible to get into the hair, after which the level in your blood falls to undetectable levels. Hair grows about a half millimeter a day. Whether a half millimeter of hair could contain detectable levels I don’t know. This would also assume he hadn’t gotten his hair cut in the 3 months between the injection and the test. And assuming that lidocaine can trigger a positive for cocaine in the first place, which seems to be denied by most sources.
–Mark
Pro-tip: Always shave your head before starting a new job (or whenever the drug test is scheduled). Try to do this a few weeks ahead of time (if you know that far in advance) so it isn’t too obvious.
That seems unlikely –
Tetracycline and Amoxacillin are from very different classes of antibiotics.
I would expect that if this is true, it would be for most of the -cycline drugs, or most of the -cillin drugs, but not just one of each of those classes.
Are you sure you haven’t mixed up the names of the drugs involved?
Everybody knows that. That’s about how long it takes after the dentist for your lips, gums, jaw & face to start tingling, throbbing, and otherwise letting you know that the anesthetic is starting to wear off.
Hopefully the stuff is out of his system after TWELVE years.
Depends if you cut your hair.
How long is your hair?