Several years ago I was at the dentist (my favorite place to be) and getting a cavity fixed. As the dentist is starting to work, I stop him and tell him that I feel everything. He asks if I feel pressure and I respond 'no, that hurts.' He starts poking around and I tell him when he's using sharp pokes, when he's using rounded edges, every where in my mouth. He gives me a 2nd shot, tries again with the same results. He does a 3rd, same thing. He finally says "I can't legally give you any more pain killers". Ever had your teeth drilled with no pain killer? All kinds of fun. He finally stopped, shot a bunch of fluouride in and did the filling. He said he couldn't continue, mainly because I couldn't. And I'm a tough SOB. Unless you mess with my teeth :laugh:
The next visit was more of the same, had a surface cavity. I think I drink too much soda. Anyway... I was told I'd be numb for several hours, by the time I made it out of the parking lot I had 100% feeling. Except for the pain where the shots were injected I wouldn't have known I was at the dentist.
Oddly enough, I quit going to the dentist except when I absolutely had to or when the receptionist finally brow beat me to a cleaning appointment. About a year ago I broke a tooth and had to have a crown down. He put me under sedation, and I kept waking up to complain about the pain. The dentist was happy as he was able to get me "mostly numb" after conferring with a few specialists on different techniques for pain in the butt people like me.
Since that 1st time I've had stitches twice, both times the novacaine/lidocaine chaser lasted about 30 seconds. Stitches with no pain killer? Sucks, but only mildly annoying compared to the torture of the dentist chair. I had a spinal tap done at the beginning of all the MS stuff, yep, no pain killer there sucks also. At this point I have dentists and Dr's that tell me I'm basically immune to the 'caine based numbing agents, and have given me business cards in case I have an issue with another Dr and he think's I'm BS'ing him.
So that's me complaining, here's the weird beginning.
My dentist sedated me again last month, it's the only way he can work on me. I grind my teeth when I'm stressed I guess, makes the teeth flex in a bad way and the enamel flakes away. I ended up needing a lot of work to fix it, I brush religiously so don't think I'm gross because I need the work done
But, I was out for the entire procedure. The only thing I remember is him waking me up a lot telling me to open my mouth which seems pretty much the way it should be. It hurt when I woke up a few hours later but at least I was out during.
This morning I started brushing my teeth, got a nice zing of pain through my head and then felt something on my tongue. One of the fillings he just did had come out. Yay! I can't be sedated without prep and a driver to get me home. And I can't go all weekend with the inability to eat or drink. My normal dentist just had surgery so I'm referred to another office, another dentist that isn't up to speed on just how 'special' I am. So my anxiety level is pretty darn high.
Anyway, she does the novacaine swab and whips out the needle of lidocaine, starts poking, and I didn't feel the shots. At all. Then she leaves me for about 15 minutes as I start counting the seconds to full sensation. I can feel my body starting to pump adrenaline in anticipation of the pain. She comes back, goes to work, and for the entire visit I feel nothing at all. It's been 2 hours, I'm still numb.
So the entire non-effect of the 'caines started in about the same time frame as all of this. Since completing the year of antibiotics I had 1 better experience with them, although I was STONED out of my gourd so poor judge really. And today where the injections actually had the completely desired effect. The only major change between being younger and the dentist, and today at the dentist has been the neurological issue, and the only major difference between the start of the issue and today has been the antibiotic regimen.
If I had 1 bad experience I'd chalk it up the just having a bad run that day, but the repeated experiences had pretty much reinforced things for me. If I had just bad dental visits and then a good one with a new dentist, I'd chalk it up to the guy (girl today) on the other end of the needle.
I know very well that correlation does not equal causation, but this has been bouncing around in my head ever since I found out I was actually numb. It's just weird.