# My fingers smelled like silver tarnish.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fingers-smelled-like-silver-tarnish/234112>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 13, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fingers-smelled-like-silver-tarnish/234112 "2004-03-13T20:17:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fingers-smelled-like-silver-tarnish/234112/1 "2004-03-13T20:17:24Z")

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I was noticing last night that my fingers smelled exactly the way one’s fingers would get after handling change, long ago when coins were made of silver. But the only unusual thing I’d done yesterday was to go to the dentist, where I’d been given the usual local anesthetic (lidocaine by injection and topical cream).

Is there anything in lidocaine, or the solvent which is used to deliver it, that would cause this to happen?

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fingers-smelled-like-silver-tarnish/234112/2 "2004-03-13T20:27:55Z")

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I can’t find a decent link for the life of me this afternoon, but [Lidocine itself messes with the sense of smell](http://www.google.com/search?as_q=lidocaine&num=10&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=sense+of+smell&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=off). You _may_ be hallucinating.