kitkat
Super Moderator
Staff member
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2006
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- 1,568
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- United States
I am just curious about how many people (who do not opt for sedation) experience feeling faint during dental work. I have noticed it is a common question on new patient registration forms and I always check "no" but I actually have experienced this (minorly) several times and I have started to wonder about it. In my case, I've never completely fainted but I have come very close. It only seems to affect me during fillings. It only occurs when the chair is very reclined and it is always during drilling (with the bumpy loud slow-speed hand piece). It has nothing to do with the injection because it is long after that and it has nothing to do with pain because it's happened when I am sufficiently numb. Could it be fear induced? I feel like it's happened regardless of feeling particularly fearful or stressed Or does it have something to do with a combination of the vibration and reclining? All I know is after a few seconds of drilling my vision starts to get very dim and fuzzy and I start to feel dizzy and it kind of feels like my ears turn off and then just before I "black out" I bounce back. I would say that it has probably happened at least 4 times but the last time was the worst and I thought I really was going to faint . I'm comfortable signaling to halt treatment when needed but for some reason whenever it happens, I can't react...it comes on very fast and it sort of shuts off my ability to respond to anything. Part of me wonders if it has something to do with blood pressure or blood sugar but it always happens under the exact same circumstances and never at any other time...Thoughts?