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room spinning reaction

P

PeteT

Junior member
Joined
Feb 21, 2007
Messages
3
Hi,

Just had the initial treatment for a crown and had a strange and scary reaction. The dentist gave me an initial injection of lignicaine and all was fine as it always has been. My broken tooth was still a bit sensitive and so she gave me a 'top up' - about five minutes later, after enough time to take an impression. A few seconds after the second injection I became dizzy - the room spinning rapidly. She asked if my heart was racing - I said no but it may have been, I was more concerned about the diziness to say the least. She gave me some glucose and after several minutes it had calmed down and we decided to continue. AFter the treatment I sat in the waiting room for half an hour and then came home - still a bit dizzy, and about 2 hours later I am more or less back to normal.

Is this reaction common? I saw a nurse at my GPs practice and she checked my pulse and blood pressure and said they were OK and to rest as much for the reaminder of the day.

Cheers

Pete
 
Had you by any chance skipped breakfast before your appt? Sounds like you had a fairly classic "vaso-vagal reaction" sort of like the early part of a faint.
The question about the heart racing was because getting some epinephrine injected IV by accident can cause similar symptoms.

It's quite common if somebody gets a bit upset on an empty stomach too.
 
Gordon said:
Had you by any chance skipped breakfast before your appt? Sounds like you had a fairly classic "vaso-vagal reaction" sort of like the early part of a faint.

It's quite common if somebody gets a bit upset on an empty stomach too.

Yes I had - skipped breakfast as it was an early appointment. Didn't feel ill at all, just spinning.

Thanks

Pete
 
Didn't your dentist ask you that? A quick drink of water with some sugar in it would have perked you right up again.
 
Gordon said:
Didn't your dentist ask you that? A quick drink of water with some sugar in it would have perked you right up again.

Yes she did, and the drink but it took a couple of hours for me to feel totally normal again. At the time it was all, somewhat literally, a blur. Wanted a second opinion I suppose. Have no compaints, she did all the right things I think, - laid me back so my feet were above my head, the drink, talked alot, and I suppose the only thing I am concerned about about is that it was a one off, and what caused it. I'll happily take your point about eating but was it the injection itself, a second dose of the drug or some weird panic attack type thing - never had any sort of reaction before and never been particularly concerned about needles or a dentist poking about in my mouth.

Pete
 
As you say, she did all the right things. As for what caused it, could be a whole load of things, the painful stimulus when the first local didn't work well enough would be my bet. It's not likely to happen again.
 
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