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Jaw Pain Immediately with Numbing Shot Injection

J

jaime

Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2010
Messages
71
Last week I had a dental visit and something that went wrong with the numbing shot is still on my mind. When I got the shot for a tooth on my lower left side, immediately my upper jaw seized up. It became painful to open my mouth and there was a feeling of tightness across my cheeks and nose. This weirdness lasted only a minute or two. The dentist didn't have any explanation for it.

This isn't the first time I had a problem with a shot in this area. I chalked up the first bad experience (numbing went to my left ear) to an oddball thing since I've had a few shots in that area with no problem when I was younger. But now this second incident is making me fearful of the next time I have to get a numbing shot. Was the jaw pain with the shot a minor thing or does it indicate something more serious? Do I have to forgo future numbing shots in that area? Are there alternatives to getting the shot besides laughing gas?

(Sorry for all the questions. I hate that I'm stressing out now. I just completed this recent round of dental visits and shouldn't have to go back until the August check-up, but I'm fearful that some new tooth problem will suddenly come up and I won't know what to do about numbing.)
 
Hi I am sure a dentist will be along to answer this for you but I had the numbness in the ear feeling and across my cheek also. I didn't have the jaw problem, or maybe I did because my jaw is stiff anyway. I didn't mind this feeling because there was no way I was going to feel any of the work being done with being so numbed. For me the number the better.
Maybe the dentist caught a nerve when he injected you, and that might have been the cause. If you have had no after effects and things returned to normal I wouldn't worry about it. :dunno:
 
Was it a sort of electric shock feeling? That's been a direct hit on the nerve. We try to put the local anaesthetic close to the nerve without hitting it, every now and then we get it a little bit too close.
 
AND then what? What happens to that nerve then? Is it more common when injecting lower or upper? The answer above just scared the heck out of me with what ramifications happens if this takes place.....I'm trying to psych myself up for my upper extraction in a week and reading this puts me a little on the edge....


Was it a sort of electric shock feeling? That's been a direct hit on the nerve. We try to put the local anaesthetic close to the nerve without hitting it, every now and then we get it a little bit too close.
 
My dentist hit my nerve when he was numbing me up for an rct on a bottom molar. The injection was right at the back of my mouth (I think its called a inferior alveolar (sp?) nerve block but im sure one of the dentist will correct me if im wrong!) It does indeed feel like an electric shock, It wasn't pleasant but it is just more of a shock than pain and it stops as soon as the injection is done.

I don't know if it can cause any after effects, it didn't in me. My dentist apologised and explained exactly why it happened afterwards. It wasn't nice but I will need the same injection when I go to get my rct finished and the chance of this happening again will not put me off, 1. because its doesn't happen very often (I read between 3-8% somewhere but I don't know if that's accurate?) and 2. because next time I will be ready for it just in case that way it wont be as much of a shock!
 
AND then what? What happens to that nerve then? Is it more common when injecting lower or upper? The answer above just scared the heck out of me with what ramifications happens if this takes place.....I'm trying to psych myself up for my upper extraction in a week and reading this puts me a little on the edge....

And then it all works and wears off normally anyway, judging by Gordon's reply :)

I've had maybe 50 individual LA injections in the past 3 months, upper and lower --lingual and facial.

All have been painless and without complication.

Best wishes,
Steve
 
Don't worry hartsada it has no long lasting effects and it is a good sign to me if it happens, it just means you are well numb. This is good as you are not going to feel anything at all. It isn't something to be afraid of. If it hasn't happened before it just makes you jump for a second if that. There is no pain after or during either.

You will be fine :XXLhug::)
 
AND then what? What happens to that nerve then? Is it more common when injecting lower or upper? The answer above just scared the heck out of me with what ramifications happens if this takes place.....I'm trying to psych myself up for my upper extraction in a week and reading this puts me a little on the edge....

As Steve says, there is no "then what", you get a much faster onset of numbness and it wears off afterwards in the same way that it always does.
It tends to happen with lower block injections because of the anatomy in that area, so you really don't need to worry about it.
 
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