I have gone through so much with dental work during my life. It's unbelievable how much I've endured. I'm now 52 and had been told several years ago that my teeth were all drilled way too deep after my braces were removed at age 13. What has resulted has been numerous root canals, retreatments, extractions, apicoectomies, implants, and so on. My latest experience which was two weeks ago was called by my prosthodontist "the uncovering" which was something I'd never heard of. It's a laser procedure around the gum line where my two implants are. It was one of the most upsetting and painful experiences of my life.

I was given the shot of novocaine and asked a while later if my lip felt rubbery. I replied that it did not, so was given another shot. I immediately felt I was slipping away, sinking. I thought this is what if felt like to die. I had previously been chatting with the doctor's assistant, suddenly became very quiet and I couldn't answer her questions. She asked if I was OK, and I said no. I fought to keep my wits about me, and tried not to close my eyes.

I still felt my lip was not rubbery, worried that I wasn't numb, but couldn't relay this to the dentist. He began lasering and I felt EVERYTHING. I didn't want to ask for more novocaine because I felt it almost killed me, so it was futile. I couldn't believe how much pain I had to endure. It lasted about 30 minutes or more, horrible. Tears were pouring down my cheeks.

About my experience, the dentist feels I'm one of the few unlucky ones to have my nervous system wash the novocaine quickly out of my body. He had no response to my reaction to the novocaine making me woozy.

Can anybody answer these two questions for me??

1. What was this weird reaction to the novocaine about?

2. I've had trouble getting numb before, but this was by far the worst. The
fact is, I almost always get numb quite efficiently and don't feel anything.
I have to wonder if it's really a matter of the dentist missing his target??

Thanks!
Karen

I am terribly sorry you had this experience. I cannot help you with your questions other than I have been told some spots are harder to numb than others. But i cannot believe the dentist went ahead with the procedure while you were obviously in such pain and crying etc. He must have noticed that even if you could not speak! If this was not an emergency treatment why did he not stop.? There are other choices for deadening pain than novacaine.

I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience. I hope it will not stick with you and develope a dental phobia. You may have developed an allergic reaction to the novacaine. You may not have had any reactions before until that time. And or he administered the novacaine at a very fast speed like he just shot it straight into you instead of slowly administering it. Every dentist knows to administered any kind of local anesthetic very slowly for patient comfort no matter how much he is falling behind schedule. Did you relay your experience to your doctor? I'd tell the assistants and the receptionist as well so they can make a note in your chart for future references. I hope you never have to go thru this again.

Ok I've thought some more about your situation and I think I know what happened. You are prob not allergic to the novacaine. The doc prob missed the nerve he was targeting to get numb and instead he hit the nearby blood vessel. This does happen from time to time even to the best of doctors. I wouldn't say it's common but it does happen. Injecting a whole carpal of novacaine straight into the blood vessel will give you that scary, out of it effect. Novacaine in the blood stream is carried to your heart and your brain and the rest of your body very quickly that is why you felt that effect fast. That would also explain why you were not numb after that second shot because he totally missed the nerve. The first shot was able to numb your lips so it felt rubbery but the deeper tissue like your nerve was uneffected. Hope that helps.

Toothfairy, thanks so much for you answer. It makes perfect sense to me concerning what happened.