Pain during IV Sedation?

[samh95]

I'm having 2 root canals done tomorrow and this is my first time with IV Sedation (Medazolam). I've had general anesthesia for 6 root canals at once and obviously there was no pain during that. Is it common to use other pain killers during an IV sedation procedure besides novacaine?

 

[LittleLynnie]

I've always had fentanyl with my midazolam.

 

[samh95]

Okay, that definitely helps. Still, did you feel any pain? I keep hearing the common refrain of "I remember feeling pain, but I didn't care" and I don't know what that means.

 

[Mike]

I do a lot of sedation with midazolam and don’t use any other analgesics besides local anaesthetic. It usually works very well (due to the patient being very relaxed) and certainly when it hasn’t worked as well as I’d like the patients have been able to tell me there and then so I could do something about it.

If anything I’d say it’s easier to tell on a midazolam sedated patient as they don’t have the control to “put up with it”!

 

[LittleLynnie]

No, I've never felt pain, and have had that combination several times. The last was for 5 implants at once. We'd originally planned on four, but the dentist "woke" me up midway to ask my permission for a fifth one that he thought would really make things better. No pain at any time.

 

[samh95]

No, I've never felt pain, and have had that combination several times. The last was for 5 implants at once. We'd originally planned on four, but the dentist "woke" me up midway to ask my permission for a fifth one that he thought would really make things better. No pain at any time.

How long did the procedure last? Also how long did it feel like it lasted?

 

[LittleLynnie]

I would guess about 1 1/2 hours, but it was 10 years ago so I'm not sure. It definitely only felt like 1 minute though, lol. I was awake, the drug took effect, and then it was over in what seemed like just seconds really.

 

[letsconnect]

As Mike said above, the local anaesthetic ("novacaine") should actually take care of any pain, and if you were to feel anything, your dentist would need to give more local anaesthetic, or give it in a different spot.

(BTW, novacaine hasn't been used in dentistry for decades - nowadays, the commonly used local anaesthetics are lidocaine/lignocaine, mepivicaine and articaine - not sure why it's still being referred to as "novocaine" )