two extractions-implants tomorrow-SCARED

[Guest]

I am due to have two upper front teeh pulled tomorrow at 2:30 and then two dental implants placed immeidately along with a small bone graft. I had an implant years ago and can't remember it much.

I have always been hard to get numb since a child and have had a few dentists tell me I was "wired" diffently than most people. Some of them worked wtih me till the got me numb & some got so frustrated trying to get me numb, I was crying in the chair for inconviencing THEM. Talk about adding insult to injury! Never went back the those guys.

This oral surgeon is patient & Nice, but doesn't seem to have the touch with the needle. Some dentists I had I barely feel the needle, but this guy has NO talent with it, sorry to say. The last bottom one he pulled, he actually gave me a shot UNDER MY TOUNGE! I've had dental problems, root canals, implant, million cavities since 6 years old and never had a shot UNDER the tough. (I'm 42) I will never take that again, put me all the way out for bottom teeth!!

Anyway he will use IV sedation on me tomorrow. Has anyone had a major dental procedure under this? The IV doesn't scare me a bit, I just keep hearing you don't remember what happened, but I want to make sure I don't FEEL what IS happening at the moment. Any experience with this? Thanks so, so. much.

 

[Guest]

Hi and welcome to the board.

With IV sedation you will still be conscious and be able to understand and respond to requests from your dentist. But you won't remember much of what happened, becaue the drugs used for IV sedation produce memory loss (amnesia) for the period of time when the drug first kicks in until it wears off.

The drugs used for IV sedation don't usually include painkillers, so you will still need to be numbed. You will be numbed after the IV sedation has kicked in.

Did you tell your dentist that the previous injections were painful? You can ask him to use a numbing gel so you won't feel the needle go in. You can also ask him if he can inject you more slowly. You may think "quick is best" because you want it to be over and done with, but if the liquid is injected too quickly, the surrounding tissue tears and this causes the pain. So, in this case, slower is better

Good luck today.

G.

 

[Guest]

Thanks so much G. Usually I get a lot more calm a few hours before a major procedure, kind of like resigned to it, and that's starting to kick in a little now. Thanks for your info & wishes.

 

[Guest]

Hello G.,

I've posted here once before...but saw this posting with your message below. I have a question to ask. If I had the procedure that I know is only a matter of "when" instead of "if", and the injection went slowly, are you suggesting that it would hurt much less, if at all? If this is true, it might heal my childhood trauma from when I was five years old and the needle hurt back then. Perhaps that was the reason why...the shot was given too quickly.

As to IV sedation, would this really help...or is Nitrous with oral sedatives enough? Any help you can provide would be helpful.

Thanks.

- S.
Portland, OR - USA

 

[Guest]

I have a question to ask. If the injection went slowly, are you suggesting that it would hurt much less, if at all? If this is true, it might heal my childhood trauma from when I was five years old and the needle hurt back then. Perhaps that was the reason why...the shot was given too quickly.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying: if the injection is given slowly it is unlikely to hurt at all. I'm not a dentist, but Gordon (who is a dentist) explained it like this elsewhere:

"The key to minimising pain is in delivering the LA solution as slowly and smoothly as possible. It should take about 2 mins for a 2ml cartridge. Some dentists when they're dealing with an apprehensive patient fire in the LA really quickly. It's the tearing of the tissues which this produces that causes the most pain.

The actual procedure should be painless most of the time. There are some procedures which are likely to be painful and will require extra LA or perhaps an additional LA technique, such as doing a root canal on a very "hot" infected tooth. Anatomical variation can sometimes mean that unusual LA techniques are required. But this is actually quite a rare occurrence."

Some dentists now use a gadget called a "wand". (Put "dental wand" into a search engine and you'll get various examples.) The microprocessor in the wand controls the flow-rate of the anaesthetic instead of the dentist's thumb.
When you're thinking about choosing a dentist, you could ask if they use the "wand" (rather than asking if the dentist is heavy-handed ...)

G.

 

[Guest]

I love all these great answers, I'm almost redundant

To answer the question about RA or IV being helpful in getting over the fear, then either would probably help, but they work slightly differently.
IV helps for somebody who just wants to be "out of it" to remember nothing about the procedure. RA is better if you just want a bit of help to get over things, if it's the thought of pain that freaks you out, then RA's ability to numb your face first is a nice bonus.

To go back to your 5 year old experience, the dentist was probably in a hurry, (let's be kind and say he was trying get things over with quickly for a small child) and fired in the anaesthetic very quickly. Hence the reason it hurt so much...