• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

Nerve Damage after filling

Hayley

Hayley

Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2008
Messages
66
Location
Cheshire, England
Hi,

I am trying to find some information regarding damage to the 7th cranial nerve due to a 'direct hit' when local anaesthetic was being administered.

I am an etremely nervous patient with a great fear of 'The Chair'. It takes a great deal to get me into it, and recently I had to go in for 2 fillings. I also normally need a fair amount of anaesthetic as I don't 'numb up' very easily. This time it was different. Almost immediately on the anaesthetic being administered, my head began to feel numb, around the back of my ear and down into my neck (no change to my jaw though or my lip). I noticed that I could not close my eye. I asked my dentist if this was normal and while he didn't say it was, he said it would be ok.

To cut a long story short, I suffered facial paralysis on the right side of my face. No motor function at all (no smiles, no frowns, couldn't close my eye or blink). Dentist said it would wear off with the anaesthetic - it didn't. I went back to my dentist the next day as I had severe swelling around my jaw, ear and eye. I was told that the 7th cranial nerve, responsible for motor function, had been hit and that although he had only seen it once before in his entire career, he had never known the effects to last longer than a few days. I was sent away being assured that all would return to normal.

Over one week later I am still suffering. I have almost constant pain around my jaw and into my ear and neck. I also have a feeling of pressure which occurs around my neck, the base of my skull, my ear, my cheek and my eye/temple area. My eye also aches deep into the socket. I also get a stinging sensation in my eye, and it weeps, but this is not often. My eye also twitches. Nothing affects this, not painkillers or anything. Lying down increases it. I cannot lie on the right side of my face as pressure to it hurts and I am experiencing electric shock style pains in my cheek consistent with TMN.

The motor function has returned to my face, however there is still a small amount of droopage. I am worried that permanent damage has been caused and I don't know what to do. Can anyone help? I have scoured the net but cannot find any information relating to this experience.

I should point out that I am waiting for a Wisdom tooth extraction on that side of my face, and I am also booked in for another filling (UR7) but I am very nervous about having any further work done in case there are further problems resulting in more permanent damage. As I said, I am nervous enough without this.The 2nd filling was supposed to be done at the same time, but the dentist decided to re-book me with a different dentist within the practice for the UR7.

Any information concerning this problem would be appreciated as I am considerably worried about it, even if only to direct me to another site.

Many thanks H. x
 
Last edited:
It's a rare complication after a specific technique of dental injection, specifically the Inferior Dental Block or IDB. The dentist has either slightly misjudged the position of the needle as he gave the injection or you may have slightly unusual anatomy.
Either way, the effects are normally highly transitory, normally lasting only 3-4 hrs, it's unusual for the effects to last beyond 24hrs, so a whole week is very odd. Do you happen to know what kind of local anaesthetic was used? Some can have longer durations of action than others.
It would be extremely unusual for there to be any permanent nerve damage, I've never ever heard of such a case, if that helps any. I'd consider taking some Vit B supplements, they are supposed to be helpful in these kinds of cases.

Since the symptoms have gone on a bit longer than normal, it would also be reasonable to ask your medical GP for a referral to a neurologist for further investigation, if things haven't completely resolved in another few days.

There is absolutely no chance of it happening again with an upper filling, they don't require an IDB.
 
Thank you for taking the time to offer your response. You have calmed my nerves considerably regarding my second filling, I don't feel quite as bad as I did before.

concerning my other problems, I will make an appointment with my GP to discuss what could be going on.

Many thanks, it is greatly appreciated.

H x :-*
 
I followed your advice, Gordon, and took myself off to the doctors yesterday afternoon. They said that it can take up to 6 weeks for damage to the 7th cranial to repair. I have been advised to wait another couple of weeks and if there are no improvements then they will refer me to an ENT specialist. To be honest, I can't live like this for much longer so if it isn't better I'll just take myself off to hospital instead of waiting around in the referral system.

The waiting will be hard, but I have been given some stronger painkillers (Tramadol) and I'm sure I'll be ok.

Thank you for your advice, it was much appreciated. I now have greater peace of mind.

H x :-*
 
Did you ever find out what local anaesthetic was used? Just curious :)
 
No, the dentist didn't tell me. All I know, from previous experience, is that it is high in adrenalin as it makes me shake. The dental practice have clammed up and are not talking to me at all at the moment. :(
 
No, the dentist didn't tell me. All I know, from previous experience, is that it is high in adrenalin as it makes me shake. The dental practice have clammed up and are not talking to me at all at the moment. :(

Their attitude is ridiculous. I'm guessing it was a youngish dentist you had the injection problem with and hence why you were quickly referred to someone else for the rest.
You are entitled to know what LA drug was injected into you. That plus all the contradictory stuff around the wisdom teeth referral.
If I were you, I would treat myself to a competent private dentist


and make a complaint for unreasonably withholding information you are entitled to (=communication breakdown as Gordon said). It also seems technique may have been an issue with your LA but there can be complications sometimes so this is not definitely the case.
Maybe an emergency dentist could competently remove the offending tooth without i/v sedation...is it a particularly difficult extraction do you know or is it your fear dictating the request for GA/sedation?
Sorry you are having such a hard time :grouphug:

Whatever you decide I'm pretty sure a mild complaint letter is in order even if only so you have started along the correct written complaints procedure.
 
Thanks Brit,

I have thought about complaining, but I am scared to as they are the only NHS dentist for absolutely miles around and I'm worried they will boot me out of the practice. I think I will write a letter. Private dentistry for WT is so expensive I wouldn't be able to afford it. I was quoted £1200 for one tooth.

They have telephoned me this morning to bring the appointment for my second filling forward to tomorrow. Apparently there has been a cancellation. I am a little cynical that this cancellation came up the day after I emailed asking lots of questions about my treatment. I have not had any answers to my questions, so I will go armed with them tomorrow.

All in all, for one course of treatment, I will have seen 3 dentists and a dental therapist, which feels a little excessive. The dentist who did the offending filling was quite young, but is heralded on the practice's website as being the head guy.

It is partly my fear that is dictating the need for something additional to the LA, but also I am concerned that the extraction will be difficult as there is not much of the tooth to get hold of, most of it has broken off and what's there is as soft as a finger nail. The dentist hasn't said that it will be difficult, but as you can imagine, my confidence in that isn't very high.

H :-*
 
The Head Guy???!!! and he passed you to someone else. Why have you seen so many people..any explanation given?

I'm sure you can get a tooth extracted privately without sedation in the North West for considerably less than £1200...it wouldn't cost that much in the USA and they can be expensive.

For what it's worth, apparently the view on here is that broken down teeth are usually easier to extract because there is no crown to get in the way.
Good luck with your appointment and I hope you finally get some sense and maybe a painless tooth extraction out of them.
 
Last edited:
I have just returned from the dentist after having my UR7 filling. This time there were no immediate problems. I have to ring the clinic they have referred me to for info on my WT extraction and I have been told that they may not agree to the IV sedation. I don't know what I will do if they don't.


Thank you to all of you for your help and support.

H :-*
 
I have just returned from the dentist after having my UR7 filling. This time there were no immediate problems. I have to ring the clinic they have referred me to for info on my WT extraction and I have been told that they may not agree to the IV sedation. I don't know what I will do if they don't.


Thank you to all of you for your help and support.

H :-*
So long as you are properly numb and you don't let them do it if you're not..a single broken down wisdom tooth extraction shouldn't be too scary but I'm a fine one to talk - I had a GA but mine were severely impacted. It was the norm then to use GA for multiple extractions of wisdom teeth. I've never used any form of sedation and just do everything with local anaesthetic. It could be that if you want sedation you'll have to wait longer. So is it an NHS clinic they have referred you to? Have you tried looking to see if they have a website.
 
No, the dentist didn't tell me. All I know, from previous experience, is that it is high in adrenalin as it makes me shake.(

No that's not very likely actually, I suspect that you may have had 4% local anaesthetic solution used, which has a higher incidence of prolonged paraesthesia (altered sensation).

Hence the delay in healing which you're unfortunately experiencing. Was the dentist aware of your difficulty in getting numb? This would have led them to use the 4% option instead of the standard 2%. Don't compare the numbers absolutely here btw, the local anaesthetic solutions are very different, so 4% isn't exactly "twice as strong" as 2% :)

In this case the adrenaline concentration is either 1:100,000 or there is no adrenaline in it at all. Compared to standard 2% local with 1:80,000 adrenaline.
 
Soft Pallet Pain

Hi all,

As part of my ongoing dental saga, I am experiencing pain in the roof of my mouth on the same side as the decaying wisdom tooth and where I have had all the recent work.

Given the probs I had with the injection that hit the cranial nerve, do you think this could be related?

I think I may be clenching my teeth in my sleep, and wonder if this could cause the pain?

The pain is there all the time as a dull ache that pulsates slowly but sometimes when I am eating I feel a stabbing pain in the roof of my mouth that lasts a few seconds.

I've never had this before and I'm finding it all very weird!!

Thanks for your thoughts

H :-*

I've just realised on hitting ' post' that I have spelled Palate wrong. My apologies. I don't have a large wooden (or metal) construction in my mouth usually used for transporting goods (although some would argue that it would fit comfortably!!).
 
Last edited:
Short answers, I've had a really long day.

1) Nope, can't see a connection
2) Yes, especially since all the stress will be making you more likely to clench/grind your teeth. It's unusual for the pain to be on the palatal side though.
 
Many thanks Gordon,

I'm sorry your day was stressful, I appreciate your comments however short they may be!!

I've decided that since I have still got nerve problems and can't shake the feeling that there is something being missed, I am going to try to get back to my doctors. I've had enough of feeling ill and it's starting to affect people around me. They're all getting sick of me not being able to do what I normally do and being so emotional from being depressed about all of this.

I'm very grateful to all of you for your help. Expect more from me in the future!!!

H. :-*
 
Back
Top