Thank you that is so kind. I feel that I get info on many topics here from people who know more about a subject than I do so try and help when I can.
My dentist once apparently got so close to the nerve that I got a sort of electric-shock kind of feeling that was just this side of painful- then he injected the anesthetic and… BOOM! Nearly instant numbness in that quadrant of my lower jaw. I’ve never had it take effect so fast or so thoroughly before or since.
happened to me once too. Was numb for over eight hours. It isn’t rare but not an everyday thing. I get it on someone maybe a couple of time a month.
You mean like some of them get really pissy when you put your foot against their shoulder?
The US Army pulled all my dad’s uppers and replaced them with dentures before they shipped him to Vietnam. He’s never said anything about being tied to a chair or pliers (and that seems like the sort of detail you’d mention) but my understanding is that they were all done in one go.
I think the issue is that nitrous oxide is a gas, so delivered via a mask. Normally, the professional supervising your anesthesia is supposed to ensure you get the right mix of nitrous to oxygen - but if you tried it yourself for kicks, it would be all too easy to put the mask on, start the nitrous going, get anesthitized, and die. What would likely kill you is not an overdose of nitrous, but a lack of oxygen.
A good way to commit suicide, I would imagine. Not recommended for a casual drug trip, though.
As I was reading this thread, who should call me on the phone but my dentist’s office, to confirm my appointment for tomorrow.
Needless to say, I rescheduled.
not quite so easy, the regulators are set up so you can’t have N2O without at least 30% O2. N2O can’t be turned on unless the O2 is flowing. If the O2 is cut off the N2O stops. I can think of one way to do it but won’t discuss it.
Is that a recent development? That was decades ago my prof told us that. I suppose the equipment may have been different back then.
nope been that way for much longer than I’ve been doing it, twenty eight years. I think what you heard was an urban legend. They are porter valves, I’ll try to look it up.
It was certainly longer than 28 years ago I was told this, but no, I can’t vouch for the truth of what she said. I just assumed being a physician she would know what she was talking about.
My dad was a dentist/orthodontist until he retired in the 1970s. He never used nitrous back then, claiming it was too dangerous. I am guessing those fail-safe valves weren’t yet in use. What he did instead, for those patients unable or unwilling to get xylocaine, et al: He learned hypnosis.
I know folks who have gotten all their uppers or lowers extracted in the dentist’s office with just local anesthesia and did fine.
Well, I’ve been to the dentist several times, so I know the drill.
Hey rsat3acr,
Any chance of you starting an “Ask the Dentist” thread?
I’m sure it would be hugely popular, if you could keep up with it.
When I was a kid, maybe 7 or 8, they said they were real busy so they would turn up the gas high and be back in just a minute. They forgot, or someone thought someone else turned it down, anyway a loonnnggg time passed and I was almost passed out and they were a bit concerned. I got oxygen and they walked me around a bit until i could walk again and I was ok. Mom rescheduled the procedure. She wasn’t pleased.
Pardon the hijack, but funny story… once during my 20’s I was at the dentist having something done, N2O going, mouth open wide, and I got the giggles so damn bad he had to stop for a while and told me, you know laughing gas isn’t really supposed to make you laugh right? I was beet red with embarrassment, they laughed at me, but it was totally uncontrollable. I laughed until I was tearing and out of breath. I’ve had NO2 several times and was just fine. Don’t know what was so funny that day.
I’ve known two people who’ve had N2O. Not so common anymore. One of them said that when he was a kid, the dentist used to look in his mouth and say
go out of the room for a couple of minutes, come back and say
None of my dentists ever offered me N20.
The other friend told me after he had N20 that the joke his dentist used was the same every time, but he laughed every time.
That would make sense, of course. However, there is at least some indication that people do kill themselves with anesthesia this way. Here’s a pubmed article from the '90s, unfortunately only an abstract:
The article doesn’t say how the “anesthesia tanks” were used, maybe the people somehow removed the regulator and accessed them directly.
According to a CNA Healthpro letter, the safety system you mentioned was introduced in 1976 and is now standard.
Side comment on the bolded bit: In my own experience at the other end of the drill, this is not true. I’ve had some pretty horrifying experiences with numbing upper teeth (well, with numbing ANY teeth; some people are just tough that way). Which of course leads to greater anxiety, which leads to poorer results with the anesthetic, which leads to even GREATER anxiety… etc.
I had N2O for the first time around 2007 when I’d postponed dental care for 18 months due to well-earned terror. Went to a new dentist, explained the history, suggested she might use a sledgehammer to knock me out. She proposed N2O plus a strong oral sedative as a slightly more ADA-approved choice :D.
When she sold the practice, the new dentist did not offer me N2O, but by then I knew enough to ASK for it. I don’t think they offer it routinely either but thankfully they’re set up for it, or otherwise I’d have had to find someone new.
The dentist we went to pre-2007 did not offer N20 either - not sure he was set up for it at all. An endodontist who saw me in that same timeframe specifically said “not set up for N2O” (one of my horrifying “can’t numb upper” experiences). Other endodontists since then HAVE had N2O available.
So all in all, I wonder if N2O is making a bit of a comeback. I mean, per other threads it doesn’t do that much for analgesia at current usage guidelines, but it gets you really really relaxed and THAT lets the local work better. This has certainly proven to be true for me, and I will never again have fillings etc. done without it (as I tell the dentist, “it’s better for BOTH of us if I’m stoned”).