Please Help Me. Dentist Injured a Nerve and I'm Stressing Out

[Gemtanis]

Last week, I went for what was supposed to be a routine filling on a lower molar. As the dentist injected the anesthetic, I felt a sharp, debilitating pain in my jaw. He clearly punctured the nerve. This has caused persistent numbness in my right tongue. I have a decreased sense of taste. Certain foods, and toothpaste, aggravate the “pins and needles” sensation on the right side of my tongue. Eating and drinking are both extraordinarily unpleasant. It feels like half of my tongue was burned. I also have mild residual pain at the injection site on my lower right jaw.

Does this get better? Are there any success stories? The dentist's office is super unhelpful. He said there is nothing that can be done, and this is likely a permanent condition.

 

[Gordon]

Sorry this happened to you, it's a rare complication but that doesn't help you much.
As a general rule, recovery takes a while but most cases do get better.

Good signs are: pins and needles in the area and some recovery of sensation, especially if this happens in the first 24hrs or so.

There's not a great deal that can be done, sometimes a steroid injection can help but usually it's a case of waiting for it to heal.

 

[Gemtanis]

Thanks for the re-assurance. It's not as numb as it was on Monday...maybe I'm getting used to it.

 

[Gordon]

What you could do is map it out, take a photo of your face then mark on that where the numb feeling starts and ends, check against that reference every few days and update.

As I've said before, if it's improving it'll likely continue to improve.