Dentist nicked side of tongue with drill

I just got back from having two fillings and when I rinsed afterwards I noticed there was some blood, and just having a look in the mirror now I can see that the dentist has caught the side of my tongue with the drill, and it has been bleeding a little.

Does this happen often and is it anything to worry about? I presume it does happen a lot as there's not much room to work with in there and the tongue must get in the way all the time I'm sure.

Ouch!

I don't think it happens alot, or at least it hasn't happened to anyone I know...or at least no one has told me.

I think the only thing you might have to worry about is infection. Keep an eye on it and keep the food rinsed away from it. Injuries in the mouth seem to heal rather rapidly from my own experience.

It can happen from time to time, tongues are remarkably good at escaping from restraint and finding their way into the danger zone.
It'll heal without incident in 24 hrs or so, there's almost no chance of it getting infected, don't worry about it.

Thanks so much Gordon, that has put my mind at ease. My tongue is already starting to heal and is less swollen than it was last night, so hopefully it will be fully healed in a day or so

It happened to my best friend, the dentist was having trouble removing a bridge and he managed to slice right in to the underside of her tongue and it bled profusely.

For 24hrs her tongue was so swollen she couldnt even speak properly or eat anything, she kept rinsing with salt water and by the next day it was already healing, and although still sore it didnt lead to any problems.

The thing about the inside of the mouth is that it has a fantastic blood supply, which means that it bleeds like mad at the slightest provocation, but also it heals incredibly quickly.

Happened to me last week.
I went to my dentist,he was out of the town,and there was someone else to replace him. I had that bad feeling but ignored it.

Bad experience.

And even the filling was wrong. So both my tooth and tongue hurt.

Went back two days later to my dentist and he corrected everything.

Tongues are frequently in the way. It is one of the major frustrations of being a dentist.