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Violently shaking at dentist today

T

teachtoreach

Junior member
Joined
Oct 13, 2010
Messages
2
Today I had an appointment to take impressions for my permanent bridge. I thought today would be the day I would actually get my permanent bridge as I already had a temporary in place. However, the doctor said since a tooth was previously extracted (6 weeks ago) (and it apparently was a very difficult extraction) it was impossible at that time to get a clean impression for my permanent bridge (there are three teeth involved) as it was very messy and the bone and gums needed to heal (6 weeks).

Today I went in believing he would numb the area, take off the temporary and just glue the permanent on. As I said earlier, I was wrong. He said he would need to drill a bit to reshape the tooth as the gums had shrunk and do other things. I started to get nervous.

Ironically, I am completely fine getting shots anywhere on my body, having blood drawn, or having IV's put in. I actually watch because I think it's interesting and it only hurts a tiny bit.

Yet anything remotely related to my mouth...I get very nervous!

I trust my dentist completely and he was very attentive to any suggestion of pain to me.

After the first four shots of novocaine, I could feel my body start to shake a little. Then he started to proceed with drilling. I could definitely feel it. He gave me three more shots. After that I was fine for 10 minutes of drilling. Then the hygenist started shoving the strings between my teeth and my gums to widened them. I definitely felt this, but I didn't tell her because I didn't want to have more painful novocaine shots. When she sprayed my teeth with air I nearly had a heart attack and told her.

She told the dentist and he came back and gave me more novocaine. I painfully felt each of the next 6 shots he gave me. My dentist was very surprised as I shouldn't have felt anything.

At this point, my body started shaking violently. I don't think it was because of the novocaine, but I was so scared that I would still feel the pain in my teeth, no matter how much novocaine.

My dentist couldn't do anything in my mouth because my head was shaking along with the rest of my body. He asked if I had eaten lunch, and I replied I had. He said maybe my blood sugar was low and sat me up. He called one of the nurses to get me a juice. She handed it to me, and I was so embarrassed to try to get the straw out of the package and into the little hole. Before I even tried to attempt this my dentist asked the nurse to open it for me. She looked put out until she did this and handed it back to me, and saw I had trouble keeping the straw to my lips due to all the shaking.

After my dentist gave me 6 more shots, 3 of them being 8 hour novocaine to ward of the pain and he was able to finish with my temporary and appt.

The 8 hour novocaine wore off after 2 hours on me and now I am in incredible pain. My right side of my face is swollen to twice its size. He sent a pain prescription to my pharmacy, but I can't afford it until payday...in three days.

Has anyone else had violent body shaking during a dental appt.?
 
That's an awful lot of injections (US doses are smaller than UK ones apparently) and if they were all so painful, he can't have very good injection technique.
I'll move this to Dentistry Questions so a dentist can comment.

The ironic thing is, dental injections done with good technique can be totally painfree whereas other injections in the rest of the body range from a little scratch to painful.


That dental nurse needs a compassion lesson as well. So to clarify how many shots was that in total? I think they should have abandoned the appt for another day much earlier than they did.

 
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Did they actually empty each cartridges of local anaesthetic in each "shot"? In one appointment? No wonder you were shaking.
 
I think that while still reeling from my dental experience, I misspoke. I didn't have 15 full capsules of novocaine, but rather 5 separate times where I was administered novocaine, and within each of those occasions, the dentist stuck me with a needle 3-4 times administering the dose to different places in my mouth. I should also clarify that I wasn't trying to imply that the dentist was to blame for my pain with each injection, but rather the fact that I was flabbergasted that each prick of the needle hurt when I should have been more than completely numb, especially after having it so many times.

I have naturally red hair, and I have heard that red-heads need more anesthetic and it wears off much faster than people with other hair coloring. I have actually had this occur with a colonoscopy where the nurses gave me a large dose, and I was awake moments later. They continued to give me three more doses, where I subsequently woke up each time. Alas, they couldn't give me anymore and I had to stay awake the entire time.

Any thoughts on this theory?
 
I am not a dentist, so I cannot tell you why or if it is normal, but I have experienced shaking at the dentist. Last year I had two extremely deep cavities filled at different appointments, and on the second one, I felt numb after I got an injection. It hurt a few minutes after he began to drill and I told him so, so he said he wanted to wait a few minutes to see if it would help and was asking if I was numb on the particular side on my face and I was completely numb there but I could still feel it when he was drilling. I didn't actually have any more shots of novocaine, because by the time it hurt enough for me to want to ask for it he was almost done, but when the air was blown in my teeth I wanted to die. Anyways, by the end of the drilling, I was so anxious my legs were shaking uncontrollably, but not nearly as much as what you are saying. But now I get nervous when I go that it will happen again. I've talked to other people that go to this dentist and they say that they love him and have never indicated anything wrong with the novocaine there but I've never had an issue in the past, so I don't know what's wrong with me.

Anyways, I just wanted you to know you're not alone.

Incidentally, I have heard anectodal evidence about the red head thing. I had a professor that was a red head and she evidentally woke up in the middle of having teeth extracted.
 
Hi There

Please feel free to contact me as I have now had the 'shaking' episode on the last 5 visits to my dentist.

A few years back I had an extraction which I had a panic attack about - lots of shaking, breathing in a paper bag but it didnt last long. However, over the past few years it has become an enormous event!

On the 2nd occasion my dentist thought it may be due to the adrenaline that is present in lignocaine as it seemed to happen right after the injection. I can feel that it's going to happen and it starts with one leg 'shivering'. This then becomes so intense that my entire leg is literally jumping off of the chair. For the 3rd filling a year or so later, I warned my new dentist who I figure didn't believe what may happen. So, after lignocaine being injected the same thing happened.

Moving on a while, last month I had horrendous toothache and knew that I'd have to go back to the dentist. They recommended that I had a tooth extracted under sedation. This time, the same thing happened without ANY injection - only it's not just my legs now - its right through to my arms, torso and legs of course!

The final straw (which has brought me onto this website) was today. I was due 2 fillings (yes, only a week after the extraction) and I have NEVER experienced anything like today. I was literally convusling on the couch. I had an adrenalin free jab and knew that it would happen again. My left leg started shaking uncontrolably, then my arm and foot. I ended up with my entire body jumping around whilst my poor dentist tried to do her work. We stopped, regularly for glucose drinks and yes the work was done.

This was all 9.30 this morning. Its now 5pm and recalling the tale to my husband and sister has brought on the same effect. I'd be keen to hear from anyone that has experienced a similar event.

I should also add that each 'shake' lasts between 15 mins to an hour and immediately after it stops I feel almosh high. However, after a day of it I feel like I've runa marathon!

thanks for reading

Vic123:confused:
 
Today I had an appointment to take impressions for my permanent bridge. I thought today would be the day I would actually get my permanent bridge as I already had a temporary in place. However, the doctor said since a tooth was previously extracted (6 weeks ago) (and it apparently was a very difficult extraction) it was impossible at that time to get a clean impression for my permanent bridge (there are three teeth involved) as it was very messy and the bone and gums needed to heal (6 weeks).

Today I went in believing he would numb the area, take off the temporary and just glue the permanent on. As I said earlier, I was wrong. He said he would need to drill a bit to reshape the tooth as the gums had shrunk and do other things. I started to get nervous.

Ironically, I am completely fine getting shots anywhere on my body, having blood drawn, or having IV's put in. I actually watch because I think it's interesting and it only hurts a tiny bit.

Yet anything remotely related to my mouth...I get very nervous!

I trust my dentist completely and he was very attentive to any suggestion of pain to me.

After the first four shots of novocaine, I could feel my body start to shake a little. Then he started to proceed with drilling. I could definitely feel it. He gave me three more shots. After that I was fine for 10 minutes of drilling. Then the hygenist started shoving the strings between my teeth and my gums to widened them. I definitely felt this, but I didn't tell her because I didn't want to have more painful novocaine shots. When she sprayed my teeth with air I nearly had a heart attack and told her.

She told the dentist and he came back and gave me more novocaine. I painfully felt each of the next 6 shots he gave me. My dentist was very surprised as I shouldn't have felt anything.

At this point, my body started shaking violently. I don't think it was because of the novocaine, but I was so scared that I would still feel the pain in my teeth, no matter how much novocaine.

My dentist couldn't do anything in my mouth because my head was shaking along with the rest of my body. He asked if I had eaten lunch, and I replied I had. He said maybe my blood sugar was low and sat me up. He called one of the nurses to get me a juice. She handed it to me, and I was so embarrassed to try to get the straw out of the package and into the little hole. Before I even tried to attempt this my dentist asked the nurse to open it for me. She looked put out until she did this and handed it back to me, and saw I had trouble keeping the straw to my lips due to all the shaking.

After my dentist gave me 6 more shots, 3 of them being 8 hour novocaine to ward of the pain and he was able to finish with my temporary and appt.

The 8 hour novocaine wore off after 2 hours on me and now I am in incredible pain. My right side of my face is swollen to twice its size. He sent a pain prescription to my pharmacy, but I can't afford it until payday...in three days.

Has anyone else had violent body shaking during a dental appt.?

Yes me too !! I looked into this apparently if you react this way the Novocain will fake your autonomic system into thinking it's cold and starts your body shivering which is a natural response to try and warm up your body. You can either have a heater put on you to warm you during the procedure or have them do one side of your mouth at a time so they don't have use enough novocaine to start this reaction. I need a heavy dose to numb me as well.
 
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That happened to me too a few times. Too many shots will make your heart race for a bit. If you were nervous to begin with, I could see that making you shake. I'm so sorry!
 
Try an anaesthetic without adrenaline if you are feeling jittery. Adrenaline can cause a slight increase in heart rate and make you feel shaky if you're already very sensitive to this.

To check that the tooth is properly numbed up, ask your dentist to test the tooth with ice spray before drilling. If you are numb then you shouldn't feel the coldness.

If you can't get numb then most likely it will be technique or anatomy.

If you're shaky even when you're numb then consider sedation. Some people don't like the thought of this but if it gets the job done then might be worth a shot.
 
Hi, I didn't shake but did feel unwell on more than one ocassion with the numbing injection.

I can recall feeling unwell after being given local aneasthetic by a dentist who had a habit of asking patients to wait in the waiting room until the injection worked. I believe this was to maximise his clinic time. Any way, i was feeling really nervous on this occassion. I was given the injection then began to feel dizzy, sweaty and sick in the waiting room, i thought i was going to pass out. My only thought was that I would be an inconvenience to the dentist, how daft is that, but at that time that's how i felt. I returned to his room feeling unsteady, relieved to lie down on the chair. I explained how I felt, but as i feared, it was clearly an inconvience to him. I felt so ill that day, the dentist without much said, was going to carry out the treatment. I refused and left, and didn't return. I was not contacted to check I was OK or to rearrange the appointment!
I didn't feel my interests were at the forefront of any discisions, there was little reassurance or concern from his team.

The tooth to this day is loose and painful. I dont get numb easily, I worry about the side effects and the efficacy of the numbing inection. Maybe sedation would help but for me trust is a big issue. I need to feel in safe hands.
 
I think that while still reeling from my dental experience, I misspoke. I didn't have 15 full capsules of novocaine, but rather 5 separate times where I was administered novocaine, and within each of those occasions, the dentist stuck me with a needle 3-4 times administering the dose to different places in my mouth. I should also clarify that I wasn't trying to imply that the dentist was to blame for my pain with each injection, but rather the fact that I was flabbergasted that each prick of the needle hurt when I should have been more than completely numb, especially after having it so many times.

I have naturally red hair, and I have heard that red-heads need more anesthetic and it wears off much faster than people with other hair coloring. I have actually had this occur with a colonoscopy where the nurses gave me a large dose, and I was awake moments later. They continued to give me three more doses, where I subsequently woke up each time. Alas, they couldn't give me anymore and I had to stay awake the entire time.

Any thoughts on this theory?

Hi there! I have the same reaction to Novacaine. After a few injections I shake uncontrollably. I thought it was just a normal reaction however the dentist says it's not normal. It's a type of allergic reaction that causes your heart to race. The dentist informed me that I need to request a different numbing medication because the Novacaine can be bad for my heart. Talk to your dentist about this in the future. I hope this helps.
 
I have naturally red hair, and I have heard that red-heads need more anesthetic and it wears off much faster than people with other hair coloring. I have actually had this occur with a colonoscopy where the nurses gave me a large dose, and I was awake moments later. They continued to give me three more doses, where I subsequently woke up each time. Alas, they couldn't give me anymore and I had to stay awake the entire time.

Any thoughts on this theory?


I don't know if anyone has answered this (I didn't read all of the replies), but I've never heard of redheads specifically. I DO know that some people metabolize drugs/medications at a much faster rate than others. Often people with GAD ( generalized anxiety disorder) experience this. I do, and I have dark hair with mixed ethnicity. I usually need much more freezing because my entire system is active from fear.
Anxiety occurs because the amygdala ( groups of nuclei in your brain). It's like a leftover of the primitive brain. It controls your "fight or flight"/survival responses, and it hasn't caught up to the modern world. So say we are at the dentist office- our fight or flight instincts are just pulsing at an incredible rate, telling our system that we are in grave danger and will die if we don't get away. But it's the modern world. We are in the dental chair, and doing something that is supposed to help us, so it makes no sense.
And this principle can be applied to most panic attacks that occur in day to day life where we are actually under no threat of danger or death.
Thing is, when your system is so activated, it is much harder to take it down so to speak. The adrenaline surges, and often you will hear stories hear or there of regular people doing extraordinary things while in fight or flight mode ( like a mother lifting a car off her child). So let's think about it in this way as applied to anesthesia. Some people's system's hold out longer than others, and can unconsciously fight sedation ( requiring more than usual to overpower the anxiety). Or fight a foreign element like freezing.

I also have this problem. One time at the dentist I was getting one wisdom tooth extraction and the dentist said he gave me enough sedatives to knock out a 280lbs male wrestler. I'm a small, 105lbs female. I was still talking and I remembered everything lol ( I was supposed to have Twilight sedation where you do not remember the procedure. Nope. Didn't work).

So I think the key for anxious people is to be aware of their anxiety, advocate for themselves at the dentist until the dentist BELIEVES them (I have a hard time with dentists taking me seriously, but this is ending now. I swear to God I am so sick of it). Ask for extra freezing, or sedation. Tell them you metabolize drugs very quickly and you usually require more than normal. Also consider asking the dentist for fast-acting anti-anxiety pills to take prior to your appointment, like something in the benzodiazepine family (think Ativan, Clonezepam, Xanax- stuff like that). To take 24 hours before your appointment in doses that are maybe 6-8 hours apart.

I really hope you're feeling better!
 
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