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What does "direct pulp cap" mean?

S

Sunny78

Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2012
Messages
38
Hello!
I went to the dentist recently and have two questions:

My dentist told me the two-surface filling in tooth number 12 needed to be replaced, that there was a new cavity. The bill says "direct pulp cap." What does that mean?

The dentist gave me a couple of shots to numb the area before drilling out the old filling. My entire outer cheek and chin felt nice and numb. But the inside of my mouth, near the tooth, was not numb at all. Not a bit. So I asked about this, and was told it would not be numb unless I had injection into the palate, which was not needed for the routine drilling about to be done. The dentist started to drill, and I felt it. So I said so. And was told the only option would be an injection into the palate and it would be very painful. I opted for that, and it was painful, but it didn't last long. Then, I did feel nice and numb on the inside of my mouth and could not feel the driling.

When the dentist was finished and I looked into a mirror and opened my mouth, my entire upper lip was drooping. I looked like someone who had had a stroke. I was concerned, but was told this would go away in a few hours. I have never had my lip droop. And the only other time I have ever had an injection in the palate was when I had a root canal. I have had a lot of injections, for fillings and crowns, but this experience was different. I like the dentist, but am concerned about what the droopiness of the lip means, and why I needed that palate injection.

Thank you in advance to the dentists who have time to answer this.
 
A direct pulp cap means that the pulp or nerve in the tooth was exposed during the removal of the old decay. The pulp is covered or "capped" with a Calcium Hydroxide paste which seals it over and encourages the pulp to lay down some more dentine to cover itself.

The lip droop is because some anaesthetic hit your facial nerve as well as the trigeminal nerve which was the proper target for it. It's no big deal. Having to do a palatal injection for a filling is pretty rare but sometimes you get stray nerves from the palate heading to the tooth.
 
Thank you, Gordon.

Droop is now gone.

:)

Hopefully there will be no bad consequences to this direct pulp cap thing.......:confused:
 
If it was going to go wrong you'd know all about it by now! :)
 
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