Intense pain during injection

[Malc]

Hello,

This is my first post here so I hope this thread is in the right place.

I went to the dentist over a year ago now and had to have a normal filling which required an injection in the lower right of my mouth near my jaw in order to numb the area where my tooth had to be drilled. Now i've had lots of injections before so I'm not overly scared of them, but I certainly don't enjoy them like most people. However, this time my dentist injected me once and it was fine, didn't hurt at all. The dentist then said he needed to do another injection, which was in the same sort of area. As he started to inject again I felt an imense pain in my tooth or jaw area near the injection area. It felt like the inside of my tooth was being crushed, the pain lasted only a few seconds and went. The dentist didn't explain what had happened, but simply stopped injecting and went on to perform the filling. No problems after, apart from slight soreness and aching for a few days afterwards.

Any ideas on what had caused this pain? I thought he may have injected too much at once in the same area considering it only hurt on the second injection.

This experience has left me fearing the dentist injections now, and i've now got toothache so i will have to go back soon on the monday after the weekend.

Any advice or information is greatly appreciated.
Malcolm.

 

[DrMike]

Hi there and welcome!
There are a couple of possibilities.
1) If the 2nd injection was done more rapidly- the sensation may have been caused by the increase in pressure.
2) If it was a 'block' injection at the very back of the mouth- it is possible that the needle brushed against the inferior alveolar nerve. This is the nerve that we aim to freeze up when giving a block injection, and very occassionally the needle can brush against it. It is not a fault of the dentist or his technique- it is just down to chance. Usually if it happens- the patient would feel a weird 'electric shock' type feeling briefly. It can be a bit un-nerving if you aren't expecting it. You can be sure that the nerve will be totally numb however as the anaesthetic is delivered right next to the nerve! If te nerve has been a bit bruised- this can explain the sensations for a few days following.

So I suspect that no 2 above was the case. Just because it happend once doesnt mean it will happen again. Also- if your filling is a bit high- it may only need a little polish down to get you out of pain- and possibly no need for more injections. Ask the dentist what he thinks happened when you go back- he should be able to give you some idea if this was what happened.

Regards

Dr Mike

 

[Malc]

Thankyou for the speedy reply Dr Mike.

I will indeed ask the dentist when I go back about the incident. Doubt he'll remember it as it was so long ago, but hopefully he'll be able to explain what it could have been like you have Mike.

Like you said, despite it happening once, doesn't mean it'll happen again, and I can only hope that i don't have that experience again as it was very painfull at the time.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has experienced this and how they coped going back afterwards.

Again, thankyou very much for the reply Dr Mike.