If you have a history of not being able to get numb for your dental procedure, The Dental Anesthesia Center is here to help.
Many people ignore or put off going to the dentist for different reasons. Some patients have severe anxiety or fear. Others have special needs such as Alzheimer’s or autism which make it difficult for them to get to the dentist. However, some patients have a unique circumstance, they have an inability to become numb.
3 Reasons You Can’t Get Numb
First, the fact is everyone is different. Just as some people react differently to medications, anesthetics are the same way. For some individuals, their body may remove the numbing agent from their system too quickly, making the numbness wear off faster than it should. This is the case when their vascular system removes the local anesthetic away from the tooth nerve quickly. This results in a person only be adequately numb for a very short period of time, or from not being able to get numb at all.
Second, although we all have what you might call standard anatomy, some individuals are different. This can be true of the way a person’s nerves are wired through their body. Some patients have extreme variability with the nerves going to their teeth. This is more often the case with lower molars.
Some patients may have 4 different nerves that lead to their lower molars. This means they may need as many as 4 different injections to get that area numb. If this has happened to you, it doesn’t mean that your dentist didn’t know what he or she is doing, it means that you are a little different than the usual patient and there is nothing wrong with that.
A third reason you may have difficulty getting numb is that you have what’s called a hot tooth. If you are experiencing severe pain in a specific tooth, it can be incredibly challenging to get that are numb. This is due to the fact that when a nerve becomes inflamed, such as with a large cavity, the nerve can actually change and become more much easily stimulated. This means more local anesthetic is needed to numb it.
St. Louis Special Needs Dentistry
If you have a history of not being able to get numb for your dental procedure, The Dental Anesthesia Center is here to help. There are many different levels of sedation that can be used to help you receive all of your dental care. The sedation method for an individual is determined on the patient’s medical history and current physical and mental health.
The levels of sedation include:
When you come in for your appointment, Dr. Hoffmann, Dr.Thoms or Dr. Behl will decide which level is best for you. We look forward to meeting you!