I’ve been undergoing some extensive dental work lately (crowns & bridge.) Yesterday, the dentist didn’t quite get me numbed up enough & hit a nerve while drilling. OWOW…I try to be brave & think I have a fairly high pain threshold, but I involuntarily jumped about a foot in the air.
My dentist tells me he has two patients who refuse all anesthesia. Neither (one man, one woman) give any explanation save they “don’t like the shots” and can go through all kinds of work without barely flinching.
AAAAGH. Is there anyone here like that? IMO, the shots barely hurt. Why on God’s green earth would someone choose not to have them? The two explanations I can think of is some people just really don’t feel the pain of a drill hitting an exposed nerve, though I have difficulty comprehending this one. The other is some ethical/religious exception to any form of drugs or painkillers?
Does anyone here refuse shots at the dentist, or know why some people do? And, why?
Yes, I have known one women who refuses the shots, for the stated reason that she ‘doesn’t like needles’. Once she got extensive oral surgery done without anything but topical anaesthesia.
On a semi-related note, my ex-brother-in-law got upset over not being able to get a prompt appointment to get a bad tooth pulled, so he did it himself with pliers.
My grandmother does. I think she’s a fool. She’s just horrified of needles. I guess it’s worth it to her to suffer through the drilling, though I can’t imagine why.
I’m with ya Carina! I have also been having some work done lately, and I NEED THE SHOTS!!
My grandmother was one of those “no numbing” people, and I never understood it! There were no religious reasons, no aversions to drugs (she’d take meds if they were prescribed to her, no problem!), but no anesthesia at the dentist office! The woman died in her sleep a few years ago, at the ripe old age of 93. Never having experienced a lidocaine injection. Weird.
Let this serve as public notice:
Should I, Astroboy, be taken captive during the war against ignorance, I will withstand torture to the best of my ability. I will stoicly withstand the beatings, broken digits, and gunbutts to the head. I will laugh as my interrogators slap me and force me to clean toilets with my tongue (am I the only one getting kinda turned on here? )! I will spit in their faces as they set fire to my testicles, and slip bamboo splinters under my toenails!
But, my comrades in the struggle, know this: at the first sign of a dental drill:eek:, I’M GONNA TALK!!
I refuse anesthesia for dental work. Frankly I don’t think it hurts that bad, and I really hate that feeling like your face is asleep for an hour afterwards. Also, and this’ll sound weird, but it makes me feel inwardly strong in some kindof funky zen way that I can do this. I certainly don’t enjoy pain, but I enjoy knowing I can move through it.
Bill I gotta know: have you had your teeth drilled? Ever had the drill hit a nerve?
I ask because I think I’m a fairly manly man, and I’ve broken limbs before and have many a scar… but it seems to me that the pain of a dental drill hitting a nerve goes WAY beyond any other type of pain that I have experienced…
[Laurence Olivier in “Marathon Man” voice] Is it Safe?[/Laurence Olivier in “Marathon Man” voice]
I always take the Novocaine/Xylocaine/Lidocaine. The dentist can work on my mouth for hours, do whatever he needs, do root canal surgery, as long as I have that numbing shot I’m very patient.
When I was a kid, though, my dentist would often refuse to give it to me for “minor” work. “You’ll only feel a little tickle”, he’d explain. This convinced me that his definition of either “little” or “tickle” did not coincide with mine. To a kid, there is no “minor” work. And a cute animal-shaped eraser didn’t make up for it.
There are people that are good enough at hypnosis — self-hypnosis in particular — that they really don’t need it. Some dentists use hypnosis as an alternative to normal anaesthesia.
I’m not that good, although I keep trying. I’ll take the needle.
Bill, I can sort of understand your position. But I still think it’s whacko.
The “fear of needles” thing is one I don’t get. What’s the big deal?
Astro, I’m with you on this one. I’m a fairly manly woman about pain & stuff. But good lord, I’ll take the little pinch of a needle over all the pain. I spent 3 1/2 hours yesterday getting worked on. Doing that without any painkillers…I can’t imagine!
I’m not sure I can ever forgive myself for what I did to my poor sister. She has always been terrified of dentists and would prefer to endure the pain rather than have one root around inside her mouth (sorry :)). As a nurse working in a training hospital she had found a detist willing to put her under a general anaesthic for a procedure she needed performed on her wisdom tooth. I tried to disuade her and adivse her of the unnesecary risk she was taking by having a general. She simply wouldnt listen.
I asked her then what was to stop this trainee detist from ahem… " interferring" with her while she was under. The guy was already suspect because he was willing to perform this procedure without an aneastiatologist present I figured. She shot one crushing look at me , a mixture of horror , disgust and fear. A week later she had the work done under a local anaesthetic.
I hope that the two weeks she spent not talking to me afterward was because of what I had forced her to endure and not crippling pain. We dont talk about the incident to this day.
Here in the Czech Republic it is not common to use shots. Costs too much. When I demanded it at my first dentist here, she got all upset because she was in a hurry and didn’t want to wait for my mouth to become numb. She started a root canal before it was ready- I wanted to kill her! I jumped, squirmed and almost started to cry.
I have found that people have different levels of feeling in their mouths. I sometimes need 3 full shots for a simple cavity because of the way my mouth is wired. I’ve got a tatoo, some nasty scars, a few broken bones and twisted ankles. I do kickboxing and knife-fighting fercrissake- I know about pain. But I have spots in my teeth that when touched by a drill, even after shots, I will jump, flinch, cringe and almost hit the dentist- and I can’t control it. It feels like this burning rod setting off an electrical charge that goes from my mouth to down my spine.
Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me. I have a dentist appointment next week. whimper
I’ve had four cavities; the dentist suggested I didn’t need Novacaine and I did without. It hurt, but he only drilled for a minute; then it was over (they were small).
I wouldn’t recommend it, and I wouldn’t go out of my way to avoid anesthetics, but I managed.
Of course, when they extracted teeth, I wouldn’t have let them do that without Novacaine.
I had a problem with cavities up until I was about 17. I have at least 18 fillings in my back teeth, and I had all of that work done (except my first) without anesthetic. Yes, I felt the drill, but I learned to “zone out” during the minute or so total drilling time.
After my first shot, I just didn’t like having half my face numb for hours. I decided to try it without the shot next time, and it really wasn’t bad at all. I personally can’t see the “afraid of needles” excuse, though. You’re afraid of a little stick, but you’ll sit through 1 or 2 minutes of drilling?
I’ve also had 2 wisdom teeth removed, and had a root canal. You can bet your ass I had shots for those! I’m not completely demented.
Its not that bad (I have ticklish teeth, but it doesn’t hurt much beyond that, at least not drilling which Is all I’ve needed.)
And I do understand the fear of needles. Along with my fear of spiders it is filed under small things that can’t really hurt you, but are damn creepy anyway.
Well, I can’t do nitrous because I’m allergic to it, and novacaine makes me dizzy - I’d like to do dental work without anesthesia but I know it would hurt too much and I’ve been a little too lazy to see a hypnotist.
People have different levels of how much pain they feel - I can see some people not feeling much pain at all during dental work, and for them, getting numbed is pretty useless.
Many times. I’ve got at least 6 or 8 fillings. I did get novacaine when I had a root canal. I didn’t want to, but the dentist convinced me it was best. But in general I refuse the stuff.
)! I will spit in their faces as they set fire to my testicles, and slip bamboo splinters under my toenails!