Afraid of Needles
From an actual conversation I had today with my dentist. I need two fillings redone. Why do they have to inject me in the gums to do that?
Small Peculiar
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From an actual conversation I had today with my dentist. I need two fillings redone. Why do they have to inject me in the gums to do that?
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Assuming that’s not a rhetorical question here…
It’s probably partly because they may have exposed, or come close to exposing, the nerve when they drilled for the original filling, and probably partly because they may do so when drilling out the old filling and any new decay next to the old filling material. (The exposed nerve then gets protected by the new filling material.)
Nitrous oxide can be a helpful thing in such cases. You get some gas to numb your fear, before they do the novocaine to numb your teeth and gums.
I’ve had nitrous only once, before my wisdom teeth were extracted. I didn’t feel anything—or didn’t think I did. They asked me to tell them when I started feeling floaty, and after a while, when I still didn’t, they just went ahead anyway. But I don’t remember the experience as particularly unpleasant. I suppose it’s possible that I was so high that I thought I wasn’t high!