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How to handle post procedure pain

C

coupondiva827

Junior member
Joined
May 3, 2014
Messages
14
Hello,

Quick background. I have some medical problems and am prescribed vicodin 10mg to help with chronic pain. I also suffer from a severe case of dental anxiety and have not had an exam or cleaning in 8 years.

As a child, I never liked the dentist but I wouldnt say I had any horrible experiences until years later. Three years ago, I had a toothache and went to my husband's dentist. He gave me two shots of local and I was in horrific pain while he was drilling. I dontknow if he injected the wrong spot or what happened but he told me I shouldnt need more than two shots and kept going. Needless to say, I have never returned to him. In April, I had a molar crack and found a sedation dentist. During the consultation, the dentist said IV sedation would be best because of the level of anxiety but he is not comfortable doing it because I take vicodin. I ended up seeing his partner who removed the tooth under NO. He did 8 injections of LA and even with the NO I still felt some pain (I truly believe if I had some oral sedation ahead of time, my anxiety would not have been so bad and I would have dealt with the pain better). After the extraction, I was told the vicodin I normally take would take care of any post extraction pain. Well it didnt. I read some research that said medication for chronic pain does not work well on acute pain but I do not understand why. I basically had several days of post extraction agony. I wasnt able to eat any solid food for several days even though I took vicodin, 800mg of advil every four hours and used icepacks.

A little off the topic of my question but I wanted to give some background to my problems. Does anybody take pain medication for a chronic condition? How do you handle dental pain? I know a dentist is not going to prescribe me a strong pain killer, nor do I expect them to, but there has to be some way to handle the pain for patients who are in my situation. Dentists, once you see how severe a patient's anxiety is, would you prescribe oral sedation even though they take other medication? My anxiety is so severe that low dose sedatives do not work (documented by my family doctor after witnessing a full blown panic attack after taking 5mg valium and 1mg ativan - 2 seperate procedures, not at the same time :)

I am really trying to get the motivation to schedule an exam/cleaning. I know that Im going to need some work done and am terrified about the actual procedures and even more so about the pain after procedures.
 
Hello,

Quick background. I have some medical problems and am prescribed vicodin 10mg to help with chronic pain. I also suffer from a severe case of dental anxiety and have not had an exam or cleaning in 8 years.

As a child, I never liked the dentist but I wouldnt say I had any horrible experiences until years later. Three years ago, I had a toothache and went to my husband's dentist. He gave me two shots of local and I was in horrific pain while he was drilling. I dontknow if he injected the wrong spot or what happened but he told me I shouldnt need more than two shots and kept going. Needless to say, I have never returned to him. In April, I had a molar crack and found a sedation dentist. During the consultation, the dentist said IV sedation would be best because of the level of anxiety but he is not comfortable doing it because I take vicodin. I ended up seeing his partner who removed the tooth under NO. He did 8 injections of LA and even with the NO I still felt some pain (I truly believe if I had some oral sedation ahead of time, my anxiety would not have been so bad and I would have dealt with the pain better). After the extraction, I was told the vicodin I normally take would take care of any post extraction pain. Well it didnt. I read some research that said medication for chronic pain does not work well on acute pain but I do not understand why. I basically had several days of post extraction agony. I wasnt able to eat any solid food for several days even though I took vicodin, 800mg of advil every four hours and used icepacks.

A little off the topic of my question but I wanted to give some background to my problems. Does anybody take pain medication for a chronic condition? How do you handle dental pain? I know a dentist is not going to prescribe me a strong pain killer, nor do I expect them to, but there has to be some way to handle the pain for patients who are in my situation. Dentists, once you see how severe a patient's anxiety is, would you prescribe oral sedation even though they take other medication? My anxiety is so severe that low dose sedatives do not work (documented by my family doctor after witnessing a full blown panic attack after taking 5mg valium and 1mg ativan - 2 separate procedures, not at the same time :)

I am really trying to get the motivation to schedule an exam/cleaning. I know that Im going to need some work done and am terrified about the actual procedures and even more so about the pain after procedures.

First off dentists do prescribe strong analgesics when indicated. It is well within their practice. The problem you run into is that many dentists aren't comfortable with patients on chronic pain and anxiety medications. I have a patient I recently sedated twice who is on several medications for pain. I would never have considered oral medication for her as it just won't work. She needs IV drugs and at a much higher dose than typical. Now the problem is that the "system" doesn't readily recognize and encourage any doctor to treat patients who have an unusually high need for drugs. I can assure you that I have documented her chart very well in case I get called into peer review or the dea calls on me.
Keep checking around as there are some dentists who do IV sedation who will be able to help you. Unfortunately with it's resent popularity most dentist don't have the traditional level of training at a hospital the way it use to be.
 
I also suffer from chronic pain and panic attacks. I am on multiple medications. All of my doctors know everything. However the dentist that I am seeing is not getting the picture. She insists Motrin 800 mg will be fine. I totally understand how you feel and I really wish that there were more dentists out there that understands that there are patients like us that we don't respond to the normal routine they are used to seeing. The simple fact that the dentist won't listen and they have control of the scalpel scares the hell out of me. I understand how you are feeling.
 
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