Misplaced Nerve. Huh!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I use sedation dentistry, (gas + Novocaine), because I’ve always had problems with dentists getting my mouth frozen. The Novocaine has rarely been 100% effective. And, it seems to me, anesthesia is one of the few things in life that you should be able to rely on being 100% effective.

I was late moving to sedation dentistry, largely because the dentists I was using were universally unmoved by my plight. It bothered them not at all, they were always, “Oh well, it sometimes happens!”, not in the least disturbed by the frequency with which it happened to me.

It was after an inquiry on this board that I discovered sedation dentistry, and everything changed for the better.

Yesterday I went in for my first ever extraction. And I went in with trepidation, I have very long teeth roots and have siblings who had difficult extractions, some taking over 2 hrs and requiring another dentist!

They hook up the gas and start with the injections to freeze me. My face and lip are frozen but when he does his test probing I can still feel it. No worries, more injections. By now, I am very frozen but the test probing produces the same results. I am growing concerned.

So he goes to fetch another dentist, explaining that another dentist will have a slightly different angle of attack, etc, and that it may make all the difference. Finally, a dentist who doesn’t take it personally and isn’t dismissive. I was so impressed.

And he was absolutely right, too. The other dentist steps in and makes a few more injections, and explains to me, “Very likely, just a misplaced nerve. Not everyone is built exactly like the textbooks describe!”

By now I am frozen right up to the eyeballs, but the probing reveals he has found the nerve and we’re good to go. The extraction goes off without a hitch, brilliant.

But as I sat in the chair I couldn’t help thinking about all the dentists I’d seen who effectively put it off on me, as anxiety related. When really, the anxiety was the result of years of dentists being unable to properly freeze me. Wow.

A misplaced nerve. Who knew?

Understandably I have a some very sore muscles in my jaw where all that jabbing took place. I’ll take that over the raw pain during the procedure any old time.

Misplaced nerve. Sounds so simple. I can’t help wondering why none of the other dentists I visited over the years ever even considered this possibility.

2

It’s horrible that it’s taken so long for them to figure it out. I have nerves in the wrong places and I always end up with multiple shots and hours of a frozen face but my dentist is awesome about not proceeding until there is no pain.

3

Wow…just yesterday I found out I had a misplaced nerve too!

I was at the podiatrist’s office. He’s been working on getting this lump off my toe. On the first visit, he just shot me up with a local then stuck a needle in the lump to extract stuff. I was all “ow! ow!”

The second visit he decided to attack the toe with cortisone. This time he shot me up with a local then poked a part of my toe with a needle and asked if I could feel it. I could feel it but my mouth said “no, it’s fine”. Perhaps I didn’t want another shot of local? Anyway, cortisone is a sonofabitch and burns and I was all “ow! fuck! OOOWWW!!!” when he shot it in.

Yesterday I went back for a third time and this time I made a point of telling him “yes I can still feel the needle after you shoot me up with a local.” He made a good guess on the second shot of local and I was properly numbed.

Altho, to be honest, with the sort of procedure I was having (100x less painful than TOOTH EXTRACTION), I would have much preferred he just go in and stick me with no local at all. It’s not like those initial shots don’t hurt! Ouch!

Anyway, so glad you got “The Case of the Misplaced Nerve” sorted out :slight_smile: You’re going to be a CHAMP at the dentist’s office now! woohoo!

4

Cortisone for local anesthesia? That does not sound right.

For reduction of inflammation and for chronic pain problems, sure. But it takes hours to days to take effect.

I always put some lidocaine or similar into my steroid shots, to numb the site up.

5

He was putting local anesthesia into my toe before injecting the lump with cortisone. Because he says cortisone burns going in. He was right.

6

Heh. I read this as “sedition” dentistry, which would be very interesting indeed.

I, too, have a misplaced nerve but not a tooth nerve, it’s in my face. Which the dentist managed to hit with a novocaine shot when I was getting a root canal. My face felt funny for six months after…

7

I think this is my problem, too (and I’ve moved to sedation dentistry, too - I take the sleeping pills beforehand, and wake up when it’s all over). I think this is why my root canal didn’t work either - they took out all the roots they could find, but I still have all kinds of sensation in that tooth. I marvel at the state of dentistry in our modern world, too - this is still the best we can do? Five per cent failure rate for root canals is good enough? Jabbing needle after needle after needle in people’s faces is proper care?

8

I feel your pain, quite literally. Had one very bad experience at age 13 where the dentist gave me 2 shots of novocaine, and I still felt the drilling… by the end of the procedure I was nearly hysterical with the pain. This set me up for a lifetime of dental phobia. Several other fillings, same problem, tooth would NOT get numb.

Finally I saw a new dentist who numbed, started drilling, I said “mgphfffff!” (translation: OW!), he said “Oh, you probably have an extra nerve in there. Let me sizzle that sucker”.

After he peeled me off the ceiling, I saw that the device in his hand was a novocaine needle, NOT an electrocautery device as I had supposed. He injected me with novo in another spot, and all was good. He (or maybe our next dentist) said “they don’t always teach about that in dental school”.

:mad:

I too have now discovered the joys of conscious oral sedation. A Halcion pill taken an hour before, and nitrous during, and wheeeeeeeeeee! I won’t say it makes dental work “fun”, but it sure makes it easier.

I made the mistake of having a root canal without this (before I discovered the new dentist who does the Halcion/nitrous thing). See, I’d had a crown done and it was no big deal so I thought it’d be OK to go in without taking any Valium (or whatever) beforehand. The shot of novocaine was so horrible I was hysterical. The endodontist said “I can give you a Dalmane but you’ll have to have someone drive you home”. I was so shaken from the novocaine I could hardly dial my phone. The rest of the procedure was horrible even with the Dalmane. He kept having to administer more novocaine, including some directly into the tooth. It’s apparently bad to jump in pain when they’ve got tools inside the tooth.

Needless to say, after I switched regular dentists (that’s another story) to the one who does the Halcion / nitrous combo, life got better. When that dentist said I needed a root canal, I went to a different endodontist. He offered nitrous ( the first guy didn’t). I said “I’ll also take a Halcion”. He was surprised. I assured him he did NOT want me sober. And it all went just fine. I remember thinking at one point “oh, that almost hurt”. Then the hurt stopped.

9

I’ve had up to 5 injections of Novacaine for a single procedure.

Did you hear about when Maharishi Mahesh Yogi went to the dentist for a cavity filling? The dentist asked him if he wanted Novacaine, to which he replied, “No thank you, I’m trying to transcend dental medication.”

10

My last root canal, the orthodontist (My regular dentist does not do them, he sends out to a specialist. Makes sense to me, I don’t expect my regular doctor to handle everything, just recognize when it is something someone else should look at.) gave me some Novocaine (My least favorite part of any dental procedure.), then started drilling after waiting for the numbing to set in.

It hadn’t set in. So he gave me another shot, in a slightly different spot and waited. And it still wasn’t numb. The infection that was the root cause of the problem was preventing the anesthetic from reaching the nerve. All he could do was drill until he was got to the nerve, then directly inject anesthetic on the nerve. That was the longest 2 weeks of my life, but it felt really good when he was able to numb it and time got back to normal.

11

My experience with having my first and only root canal done with sedation dentistry was that something hurt so bad at one point that I tried to grab the tool - and this was WITH sedation and numbing. I was SOOOOO glad I didn’t try to have a root canal done conscious.

That’s what finally sent me to sedation dentistry - my old dentist left, and the new dentist was trying to freeze me for a couple of fillings. After the fourth or fifth shot (I lost count), I could see the fear in his eyes at not being able to freeze me properly. I think my exact thoughts were, “Fuck this. There has to be a better way.” and there was! :slight_smile:

12

Except for the last one with the very bad infection, I have never felt a thing during my 3 root canals. Which is why I am perfectly happy that my dentist uses an outside specialist. He does good work and it is painless.

13

Well, someone has to put in those “final friend” teeth and secret radio transponders.

14

No way, man - I’m not falling for it any longer. “Painless” is a word that applies to other people and dentistry, not me. :slight_smile:

15

Remember that dentist song from MASH? “Suicide is painless”

16

I have this too, in my lowers–fortunately my dentist knows about this, doesn’t dismiss it, and does schedule extra time to numb me.

The funny thing is, my uppers are the opposite way. One shot in the jaw and it goes numb, along with most of my face.