I need some advice. I have found that the Novocaine dentists give does not work for me. It really doesn’t matter how many shots they give me. I had one dentist try as many as seven. It’s not an allergic reaction. The medicine is simply ineffective. As you can imagine. This has made my dental care an agonizing experience. I am curious if this is unique to me or if you’ve seen other patients with a similar issue. If the latter, did you find a solution for them or do they just have to suck it up. While I do have a high pain tolerance, I do tend to avoid the dentist as a result of this and only see the dentist on an emergency basis.
Katherine
Dear Katherine,
Wow! I will say up front that you are brave. I love how you are plugging through trying to find solutions when dental work causes you so much pain. I have good news for you. I believe I know not only what you are dealing with but how to fix it as well. There has been some data connecting dental anxiety with the inability for local anesthetics, such as Novocaine, to work on patients. Given your experiences, I am not surprised if you have not just some dental anxiety, but massive anxiety. This is only natural.
The key to solving this is a medication you can take before your dental work. You will need to find what is sometimes called a sedation dentist. They don’t really “knock you out” as you would get with anesthesia in the hospital. Instead, they provide some type of dental medicine such as nitrous oxide or oral conscious sedation. In your case, at least in the beginning, I am going to suggest oral conscious sedation. This is administered by a pill. It is one strong pill, though. You will need someone to drive you to and from your appointment as well as stay with you for a few hours afterward until you are lucid and steady on your feet again.
The pill completely relaxes you, hence the need to have someone help you around. In fact, patients using oral conscious sedation are usually so relaxed they end up sleeping through their entire appointment. Because of that, your body is able to process the Novocain properly and you end up with a relaxing, pain-free dental experience.
The side benefit of this is you will be able to get more work done in each appointment. This will allow you to catch up on your work more quickly. Plus, you will likely not be dealing with emergency dental care anymore!
Once you’ve had a few good experiences under your belt, you may not even need a sedation dentist anymore and just some simple nitrous oxide will be enough. With that, you won’t need a driver or babysitter.
This blog is brought to you by Decatur, AL Dentists Dr. Drake and Wallace.