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Strange Epi question

M

MissAbigail

Member
Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
20
Hi everyone,

I have kind of an odd question..First of all, i suffer from panic attack disorder, never really affected my dental trips before, I have 4 fillings that fell out about a year ago, and haven't been able to afford to go to a dentist until now. My fiancee accually took out a loan so we could get my smile pretty again. One of the fillings are out on my left front tooth (praying they can save it) The others are molars witch I'm sure are a lost cause since they completely broke apart. The last dentist i had did a horrible job, she filled teeth she knew needed crowns, basically hoping they would be okay. I tried to go back to her when it happend becuase i was extremly upset and the practice went out of business, go figure. But anyways, I feel I have found a great dentist to take care of me.

Now..tis is rather odd, like i said been to the dentist plenty of times had the usually local anesthetic, never bothered me..acually it always made me sleepy and relaxed. But i have now read that it contains epi and I'm terrified im going to have a major panic attack, becuase of the obvious supposed side affects. Any dentists out there that can give me some re assurance of basically the chances of me reacting poorly to it? Does this stuff always enter your blood stream and make your heart race or am I just being paraniod? Any input you can give me would be great. Sorry so long. Thanks a bunch

Abigail:)
 
The facile answer would be "You've had it before with no problems" but I don't suppose that would help much.
How about this...
1) The amount of epinephrine in local is miniscule compared to the amount your own adrenal glands can kick out.
2) The reason for the epi in the first place is to stop stuff going into your bloodstream... lignocaine is a very well absorbed drug so if there was no epi around a lot of it would go straight into your bloodstream and would be washed away rapidly, thereby not working.
3) Dentists are careful to try to avoid injecting into blood vessels. It can happen but it's very rare and most of the time we notice it and don't give the full shot of local
4) If you're still that worried about it, then there are epi free local anaesthetics about, why not discuss it with your dentist
 
Accually, just the fact that you aid epi helps stop the lidocaine from going into my blood stream calms me a ton. So basically, as long as the epi doesnt get injected into a blood vessle I wont have a ton of side effects? Thanks for your reply ;D
 
Yes that's right.

And you're totally welcome :)
 
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