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Burning, tingling and numbness after novocain

G

Guest

Former Member
I had a piece of tooth come off from eating a peanut. Molar on the lower right. The tooth is basically an enamel shell with a ton of amalgam. Fortunately there was no pain, the root was not involved, so no root canal necessary, and the dentist did a bit of bonding to replace the broken area.

Now I'm scheduled for a crown on that tooth. Personally I'd rather stay with the bonded tooth, but I surmise that is not a long-term option.

My problem is the anesthesia options. I'm not afraid of dental procedures in general. But about 3 years ago I had a filling replaced (in this same tooth as a matter of fact) and the novocaine injection had side effects. The numbness took a considerable time to wear off -- days in fact -- and I had intermittent burning, tingling, etc. for weeks afterwards.

Needless to say I'm not anxious to repeat the experience. I would really like to not have any injections for the crown work. I've had root planing and scaling without anesthesia and that was fine. The pain threshold in my mouth is apparently higher than normal.

I'm very happy with my new dentist except that she does not offer any kind of alternative anesthesia -- just the novocaine injections.

So, after this long-winded explanation, my question is what actually happens in this crown process in terms of shaping the tooth for the crown. Should I expect a ton of pain? Because if that is the case, even though I really like my current dentist, I would opt for looking for a dentist who could do some kind of conscious sedation process.
 
It sounds like when you had the injection before, the dentist was 'too accurate' and may have brushed against the main nerve at the back of the mouth. The side effects you then had were just really because it was a bit bruised. This would not mean that it would happen again (although it might!). If you have a high pain threshold I suggest that you tell your dentist about your experience and ask if they could try an 'infiltration' injection next to the molar rather than a 'block'. This would mean that there would be no chance of the main nerve being bruised again. Usually an infiltration is not quite enough to fully freeze a lower molar, however I do do it with people who have problems with blocks and usually it is very successful.
Regards,
Mike Gow
 
Thanks for the response. My freak-out factor for having another nerve block is pretty darn high. To the point that I haven't had any dental work done since that problem and would rather have that tooth fall apart than have the crown and risk it happening again.

I had no idea that this sort of localized injection was possible. I'm willing to deal with the caveat that it may not completely numb the area rather than take the risk of having an injection injury to one of those big nerves (lingual?). I'm not willing to tempt Fate again. ;)

*exhales a tiny bit*
 
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