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Went to the dentist after many years

A

Annauk

Junior member
Joined
Jan 6, 2020
Messages
9
Location
uk
I hadn't had chance to go to the dentist for many years because I am a carer of my disabled daughter, so neglected my own care.

After two months of horrific pain including christmas I went and had an emergency appointment. I had a large hole that I could feel with my tongue so they gave me the first part of a root canal.

I have had the anesthesia injection into the gum in the past and had wisdom teeth removed this way while awake with no issues.

Sadly this time after a minute my chest went really warm, I almost passed out and my heartrate went crazy. This also happened to me 3 years ago with a spinal epidural and I had to then go on to have my baby being asleep.

After a while it passed and the treatment was done but my body was violently shaking, and to top it all of the one root was painless, but the other they couldn't put the stuff into because it hurt so bad. It was infected.

They sealed it up and I have been painfree with my temporary filling. They told me the tooth next to is it is the same shape, and I am so worried because on this side of my mouth anesthesia only seems to work on one side :(

Should I be worried about the anesthesia reaction? I feel like I'd rather have all my teeth out that go through that again.
 
Sad to see no replies :( I do dread going to the dentist.
 
Hi Annauk! Sorry that no one has replied to you yet.

Firstly, congrats to you for going to the dentist after many years! This is a big achievement.

Secondly, whilst I can't be much about the anaesthetic reaction, I would definitely recommend that, if you can, have a chat with them about your worries of the same reaction happening again. I'm sure they will be able to help reassure and find a solution to help avoid the reaction happening again.

:XXLhug:
 
Hi Annanuk,

sorry to read about your last experience.

I was wondering whether your dentist noticed what had happened and how do they react? Did they do anything about it? Did you feel looked after well? It is a bummer you had this experience after finally plucking the courage to see a dentist so at least I hope they had treated you kindly.

Now to your experience. There are cases where people report feeling like you did if getting an anesthetic that contains adrenaline. Also being very nervous really messes with the biochemistry in your body and makes it more likely that stuff like this happens. I think a good chat with your dentist about this might help. As far as I know there are options such as injecting more gradually or to use an anesthetic without adrenaline. A good chat with your dentist about this might help to find a solution as @frostgirl . Sometimes a short break to catch your breath and calm down is a good idea to get you back in control and catch your breath in case some of the things you experienced came from stress. It is also known that infected teeth are a bit harder to get numbed, however not impossible.

We have an article about bad reaction to anesthetic and about numbing. There are some further explanations and things that can be done, hope it helps.

All the best wishes, keep us posted and hope your next experience will be a better one
 
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Dear Annauk,

happy to hear the tooth is doing well. Sounds like you got good dental care.
From my experience, patients can react not well to the Adrenaline in the anesthetics. I have never encountered allergic reaction to the numbing adjacent and I feel safe to assume it is the adrenaline.
Adrenaline is a hormon, it induces reaction all over the body. It has a strong effect on the heart (creating intensified faster pulsation) but also on other tissues in the body. Generally speaking: it activates the sympathetic system and that is a very tiring thing for the body, the body is spending a lot of energy during a short period of time, and that is tiring. Feeling exhorted after numbing is very common, I even experience this tiredness whenever I get injected in the dental chair.
 
Annauk, Hi.

Wow, what a bad experience around Christmas time.
Well done for getting to the dentist's chair. Whatever the circumstances were, you still made it. You.
I'm so sorry to hear it was such a disappointing one though.
I hope this doesn't affect your next decision though. Maybe a decent chat with your dentist, before committing to anything, will help somehow.
There may even be no immediate rush to treat it, as it sounds like they have temporarily "treated" it. This could be to give time to heal the infection first. Kind of simplify things a bit possibly.
It sounds like that means more appointments overall and you sound quite busy enough. But maybe not and it definitely can't be a bad thing to know all you can. You surely deserve all the available info to help you come to a decision.
I do agree with what has been said about the power of adrenaline, above, but sometimes face-to-face chats about these things can make more sense and give more reassurance.
Whatever you decide to do though, you have been very brave so far. I'm sure this trait of yours will help you onwards.
Please do, if you find the time, keep us updated.
Until then; I wish you the very best and some good luck too. :)
 
Annauk,

I too am sorry you experienced it.. it is really hard and startling when this happens.. I'm glad you had past good experiences to compare this with to know its not always like this.. I can testify that mostly 95% of time the shots are non eventful and non painful can't even barely feel them. just the weird numb feeling.. however. the last 2 times I got shots.. I had this same feeling the rush of adrenline, my heart beat was so fast and I felt faint and a bit dizzy,, I had to hold onto the chair and sit upright and move myself a bit. My dentist saw and was concerned and immediately asked me was I ok.. I could see he was moved by my distress. He asked if he could get me water, which I had my own near I could grab. and he went to get me chocolate to just put something in my system. He said sometimes when the shot hits the vein it goes into the blood system and thats when this happens. This doesn't happen often but it does happen.. Another dentist on here explained to me for my instance, I was having multiple procedures in a short period of time and encouraged me to wait about a month between procedures to let my tissues have a break. I also have experienced the infection thing where its harder to get numb with infections.

I do think you are very brave and hope that the next time you go in your experience is like your previous times where it went good. Welcome to DFC!! We are glad you are here.!
 
Thank you for your kind replies. My heart is racing just thinking about teeth.

Sadly the tooth has cracked from top to bottom enough for my fingernail to be able to get in.

I am terrified of going back because the root canal couldn't be done properly last time as I couldn't be numbed up properly on one side. Like I said I was the same with my spinal when I had a baby.. I can't even be put to sleep because it's not a wisdom tooth :(

Really wish I could just have all my teeth out.. they are not in a good way - got some small brown areas forming on many of my teeth now.
 
I understand your concern, but having your teeth out would not really solve the issue of this one cracked molar. ?

You need to have a frank conversation with your dentist about the pain you could feel despite being "numbed". There are different techniques that better numb certain patients. If possible, another dentist may be able to help you further. Also, a harsh reaction like you had can definitely be caused by a "hot tooth", that is, an infected tooth. They can be much harder to numb. Sometimes an antibiotic is needed to treat the infection first. If you are pain free now, it's likely that it's not infected, and it's likely that treatment will hurt less. And the adverse response you had may well be, as Dr Danial said, just the adrenaline.

See, when we go to the dentist, we generally feel powerless, and like we have no say in the proceedings. But if you go, and you say, "I would like you to try numb this tooth to treat it, but if it's too painful or if I get too anxious, I want the appointment to stop. And I would like it if the dentist paid close attention to my comfort levels during the appointment." That's perfectly reasonable. Many dental practices are more than ready to handle such a request!

And if you still have difficulty getting numb, you can ask for a referral elsewhere. There are different injection techniques. And if no luck there, you can try find a practice that will allow twilight sedation, which is a much milder sedation than general anasthesia, but has similar effects in that you won't remember anything much.

Sometimes dental work is a progress, in that sometimes it takes time to get the treatment on just one teeny tooth quite right. This is actually not uncommon. Please don't lose heart. We're all here for you! ?
 
I had terrible pain for a couple of days after noticing the crack - but it's all fine now.
 
I hope the pain receding is a good indication that the tooth can now be dealt with properly. My mistakes were accepting the pain dying down but, then, doing nothing about it. Turns out I'm not very clever. Please don't be me. :)
 
I delayed going back to the dentist then Covid happened. I have been so busy as my children were off school for 6 months!
So here I am with a half done root canal, the temporary filling has fallen out and the pain is back. :(
I think I need to have a referal to the hospital dentist as the emergency dentist here doesn't have time for a patient that's difficult to numb, and with this suspected infection it will only make it harder. I just don't have a perma dentist right now. I can get an emergency appointment but their time is so short.. and it will be so difficult to actually get a hospital appointment because of covid backlog.

Any tips for pain management? I'm coping at the moment and hope it will pass. I can feel it pulsing with my heartbeat, and it feels like there is pressure inside.
 
I'm going to opt for tooth removal. Could I end up having issues being numbed for this or is a different type of anesthesia?
 
Hi Annauk,

it sounds like getting an appointment with a dentist first.. any dentists.. would be the best idea. You can then take things from there, depending on how the tooth is going and what the situation is. The dentist may also be able to answer your questions about the anesthetic, about possibilities to get to a hospital etc. There also may be options to get you out of pain to give you some time to plan next steps. It seems to me that you - understandably - are trying to figure it all out on your own and several steps ahead, without having proper information. Making decisions under pain and under pressure and under anxiety may not be too wise. Hope you will be able to get help soon.
The anesthesia is generally the same for tooth removal vs. root canal, but given your past difficulties, it may be a good idea to have a chat with the dentist about how to make sure you will be comfortable and numb enough for the treatment, whatever kind of treatment it is.

All the best wishes
 
I went to an emergency dentist today as my face has swelled to just under my eye, the pain has stopped in the tooth though.

I was offered antbiotics or a tooth extraction. They won't do a root canal until after covid. I took the meds as I am not in pain. I have 900mg to take 3 times a day - two different types. I just have to manage now until I can get the root canal finished, or I have it removed because I can't bear it anymore.
 
Wow, face swollen to just under your eye sounds scary. Glad you were able to get seen. Were they nice to you?
Hope the swelling subsides soon and keeping my fingers crossed for you to get the treatment of your choice soon.
 
Wow, face swollen to just under your eye sounds scary. Glad you were able to get seen. Were they nice to you?
Hope the swelling subsides soon and keeping my fingers crossed for you to get the treatment of your choice soon.

The dentist was nice yes. He did warn that if they tried to remove it and it failed I would have to go to the hospital.. I have so much going at home I cannot end up there right now!
 
People in the UK are really being left in the lurch at the moment. It’s as if teeth are not important. Basically the only options being offered to you are “grin and bear it” with painkillers and antibiotics or lose a tooth, with all the consequences that brings.
Over here in Germany they are doing root canals and even under a restricted service they would definitely treat you as an emergency, you have a half-finished root canal!
I hope things calm down and you are soon pain free.
 
Annauk,

Just seeing your post and hoping the antiobiotics are kicking in and helping you a bit with swelling and pain with the pain meds also! Hope you can get the work soon!
 
I'm well now, although one of the antibiotics was giving me mental health issues - I won't be taking those again! Metronidazole 500mg x3 times a day on top of Amoxicillin 400g x3 times a day.

I was spaced out and hallucinating!

It's going to be a very long wait now Covid has hit my area in this second wave, it's been confirmed in my daughters school. All are home with a cold bug, and with no covid tests we are waiting it out.

Hope all are well.
 
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