Needles-- nerves, parasthesia, etc.?

[sara_chan]

Alright... my three biggest phobias (in this order) are:

dental procedures: specifically, something going wrong and ending up with parasthesia or a pinched nerve or something.

General Anesthesia

Pain

Can the dentist just extract wisdom teeth without anesthesia? How badly would that hurt?

And is it actually possibly for an injection to hit a nerve the wrong way and make it so I can't feel my chin or close my mouth? The wizzies are on the bottom, if that makes a difference.

*passes out*

any information would be tremendously appreciated....

 

[Gordon]

It's possible, the dentist and staff would need industrial strength ear defenders I should think, unless you have unbelievable pain tolerance...

Injections can hit nerves, but no lasting damage is done, there's a sort of electric shock feeling for the patient. The main causes of lasting loss of sensation are using a 4% solution of local anaesthetic, which is rare now because 1) Everybody now knows there's a problem 2) You can't get the bloody stuff because of a cock up in the factory that makes it...
The other cause of loss of sensation is that the nerve is physically damaged in the course of the extraction, it's very rare and usually can be predicted from x-rays before treatment. If it's a real risk for you then your surgeon should have discussed it with you anyway.

 

[sara_chan]

Okay, thanks so much! Do you know if they would still use the novacaine if they also used nitrous oxide?

 

[Gordon]

Yes, you still need to use local anaesthesia if you're using N2O.

Why do people in the US still wibble on about Novacaine? It's been out of production since the 1920s? I can't get my head round it