Novocain Doesn’t Work for Me
Question submitted by Avery
I have some type of reaction to Novocain. I don’t know how to really explain it. I’m not allergic to it. It doesn’t make me itch or anything. The problem is that it does absolutely nothing. It does not numb me. It does not do anything. Instead, I am left with dental appointments that feel like absolute torture. Have you ever heard of something like this happening? If so, is there a solution? I have a lot of dental work that I need to get done.
Avery
Dear Avery,
I am glad you wrote. This is a completely solvable problem. When Novocain does not work for someone, it is almost always because they have some level of dental anxiety. You may not even be aware of the anxiety, but your body is. This has the effect of burning off the numbing medication before it really has a chance to do its job, leaving you in agony during your procedures.
The key to reversing this is to deal with the underlying cause of anxiety. I don’t know many people who can just “will” themselves to be less anxious. However, by using dental sedation, which is designed to relax you and relieve your anxiety, it will free up your body and allow the medication to do what it is designed to do.
While there are three levels of dental sedation: nitrous, oral conscious sedation, and I.V. Sedation (listed from mildest to strongest), not every dentist offers all three levels. The general recommendation is to use the mildest form and work up from there. However, given your lifetime of horrible experiences, I’m actually going to recommend you start with the second level—oral conscious sedation.
This is administered by a pill but is very strong. It’s so strong, in fact, that you will be required to have someone drive you to and from your appointment. You will also want them to stay with you in your home for a few hours until you are lucid and steady on your feet again. It will completely relax you and allow you to get your work done, pain-free. In fact, some people call it sleep dentistry because they are so relaxed that they just sleep through their appointment.
Using oral conscious sedation will also allow you to get more work done at each appointment. This will enable you to get caught up on all the dental work you haven’t been able to do because of your circumstances.
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