I'm using the opportunity to complain!

[Dr. Zoidberg]

I just had a cracked filling replaced at the dentist. Now if you couldn't figure it out based on all my candy and beer posts, I've spent a LOT of my life at the dentist. I'm not sure which teeth have any actually enamel left and which ones are 100% fillings of fillings that needed to be filled. I have even -- from TWO dentists -- received compliments on my composure and unflappability. I can always leave the chair and go right back to whatever I had planned for the day.

Well today was like a bad cartoon. The novacaine needle -- usually a minor piercing inconvenience -- was a little more cold, and the taste was somehow even more bitter. The air sucker mask thingie I had to wear to reduce the likelihood of breathing Covid on the employees was like trying to swallow a watermelon whole. It made for gross combo of a bone-dry mouth and pooling, slimy drool.

The work was quick and thank God the novacaine was in full effect. But my tooth hurts from being drilled out, my jaw hurts from being pried open with that suction, gums hurt from the needle, got a headache, and somehow 60% of my head is still numb.

All I want is a beer but I'm not getting up from this bed...

[Smallbear]

Screw the needle. I said to hell with the freezing a long time ago... It's faster, you can give them better feedback on their fitting/smoothing job because you can actually feel when you bite, you have your mouth back immediately afterwards, and you don't need to go through the feeling that is best described as someone clamping your gums in a pair of needlenose vise grips.

Can have the job done, paid and gone in as little as 10 minutes sometimes.

[AestheticsInMotion]

@smallbear said in I'm using the opportunity to complain!:

Screw the needle. I said to hell with the freezing a long time ago... It's faster, you can give them better feedback on their fitting/smoothing job because you can actually feel when you bite, you have your mouth back immediately afterwards, and you don't need to go through the feeling that is best described as someone clamping your gums in a pair of needlenose vise grips.

Can have the job done, paid and gone in as little as 10 minutes sometimes.

How's it feel getting drilled out without the numbing agent? I'm not a huge fan of needles...

[Dr. Zoidberg]

@smallbear Freezing? Is that like gassing or something?

[Smallbear]

@dr-zoidberg Local, aka Novocaine.

[onlytwowheels]

I gave up novocaine when I was 10 years old, after the dental assistant left that needle in my mouth for what seemed like 5 minutes while she was talking with someone else. I wrap my arms around the chair arms and tell the dentist to go for it.

[EssExTee]

@dr-zoidberg one of my wisdom teeth crumbled yesterday. I'm not in pain (yet) but I'm dreading getting them removed. I've never been anaesthetized before.

[Smallbear]

@aestheticsinmotion said in I'm using the opportunity to complain!:

How's it feel getting drilled out without the numbing agent? I'm not a huge fan of needles...

Broadly similar, just more intense. Most of what you feel IMO is the vibration anyways. And with deep drilling you'll definitely feel it like a jabbing, but it only lasts a moment because they need to pull back to see what they're doing anyway. Just squeeze the armrests harder. Buuuuuuut... You get the same jabbing from the needle as well, so it's really just a matter of which one you like the least. For me it's the needle, hands down.

Honestly, the worst part isn't the drilling anyway. The cold water/air jet they use to rinse and dry after drilling, to me is much worse... And the needle doesn't even help with that as I have sensitive teeth anyways. Worst is the polishing though because of the large low speed bit they use. Which, again, the needle does nothing about because Novocaine doesn't stop you feeling vibrations.

[VincentMalamute]

@Dr-Zoidberg I'm an incredible weenie with needles. (Sticking other people with large needles doesn't bother me at all though). My two dentists in Milwaukee left the topical anesthetic on for a long enough time that I never felt the lidocaine needle. Then they injected the lidocaine so slowly, I never felt the burn either.

I thought this painless technique was used by all dentists now. Found that was not true after I got a crown in Loveland. Now looking for a new dentist who has the patience and technique to numb up painlessly.

@EssExTee I'm getting an ache in a molar and I know a crown is in my near future. I am trying to find a painless dentist. Maybe they don't know how to do that in Colorado.

[Smallbear]

@essextee said in I'm using the opportunity to complain!:

@dr-zoidberg one of my wisdom teeth crumbled yesterday. I'm not in pain (yet) but I'm dreading getting them removed. I've never been anaesthetized before.

This is a biggie. When and if the time comes... Honestly the removal part doesn't scare me. It's the fact that I probably won't be able to do without anesthesia. Hopefully they'd do gas instead.

[Smallbear]

@aestheticsinmotion Oh and also I'm convinced it keeps them a little more careful with what they're doing in there too.. win/win.

[VincentMalamute]

@smallbear said in I'm using the opportunity to complain!:

Broadly similar, just more intense. Most of what you feel IMO is the vibration anyways.

I gotta disagree - it's the severe electric shooting pain of them hitting the root nerve!

But you've got a higher threshold of pain than I do. I would never do it without local anesthetic.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

@essextee Yikes.

[DipodomysDeserti]

@aestheticsinmotion My seven year old daughter had a cavity drilled without novocaine and she sat through it cool as a cucumber.

[EssExTee]

@dr-zoidberg I knew this was coming. They're all impacted and three of them aren't even fully out of the gum. I was warned they'd trap food and rot away and that's what happened.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

@essextee I had all mine removed when I was 14. They were all impacted. I mean like ... 90 degrees and buried. Not great.

[Smallbear]

@vincentmalamute said in I'm using the opportunity to complain!:

I gotta disagree - it's the severe electric shooting pain of them hitting the root nerve!

It's true, but I never managed to be totally free of that anyways, even with the needle. So, same but more intense. And like I said it does nothing for the vibrations--they suck balls either way. Shrug emoji.

Anyways, I've had fillings done so deep the nerve was exposed without Novocaine. 10/10 would do again without. For me the needle is by far the worst part.

[VincentMalamute]

It is surprising how pain perceptions and threshold vary with the individual. My pain threshold is much lower than @DipodomysDeserti 's 7 y/o.

[DipodomysDeserti]

@vincentmalamute She just really hates needles. I didn’t even know you could drill a tooth without novocaine, but the dentist said she could try it out and see how she does. I was impressed.

[bobkustofawitshz]

@essextee @Smallbear I wouldn’t worry about the anesthesia. Honestly for wisdom teeth extraction I’d highly recommend it. I had all 4 of mine pulled when I was in my late teens. They were likewise impacted.

The anesthesia is different from major surgery anesthesia that would require intubation. I think they used Ketamine. It’s a heavy sedation. I was anxious and also don’t like needles, so had them give me some nitrous before they even put the IV in. IIRC they used a child-size IV (smaller needle) and by that time I was very relaxed from the nitrous and didn’t even mind. Doc asked if I was good to go, I gave the thumbs up, they pushed the K and within seconds I was higher than I’ve ever been in my life and...

Done. The next thing I remember was waking up in the recovery room with my mouth stuffed with gauze. Seriously, don’t remember anything of the surgery, didn’t feel a thing, it was as if no time had elapsed at all. Relatively little pain, not much swelling, and the Vicodin they gave me made the recovery great. I know not everyone has the same experience, but overall for me it wasn’t too bad at all.

If you’re as anxious as I was, then trust me, you want the anesthesia. I couldn’t imagine being conscious and aware of what they were doing in there, and the associated discomfort (mental if not physical) that would result.

[VincentMalamute]

FYI of terms. Conscious sedation or now called moderate sedation is what the dentists are doing. For radiology procedures, we used Versed (IV Valium) for everything and everyone. Apparently dentists use something else. In moderate sedation, you're out of it but responsive and can breathe own your own.

For major surgery, it's called general anesthesia and the difference is you usually can't respond and can't breathe on your own.

[Chariotoflove]

@dr-zoidberg I had some 40 year old fillings replaced a couple months ago. It went much better. You should use my dentist.

I don’t think anyone uses novacaine anymore. Lidocaine is much more popular.

[Manwich]

@essextee said in I'm using the opportunity to complain!:

@dr-zoidberg one of my wisdom teeth crumbled yesterday. I'm not in pain (yet) but I'm dreading getting them removed. I've never been anaesthetized before.

It's not bad. I had to be put under to get my two upper wisdom teeth out. I went to sleep, I woke up and it was done. It hurt somewhat later on in the day when the freezing wore off.

[smobgirl]

@bobkustofawitshz said in I'm using the opportunity to complain!:

Honestly for wisdom teeth extraction I’d highly recommend it.

That’s how we learned that anesthesia makes me vomit. Had four impacted wisdom teeth removed by drilling them to pieces. Spent the next three days puking my guts up with a face the size of a watermelon. It was fantastic. So I personally wouldn’t recommend it unless you already know you’re ok with anesthesia.