Dental anesthesia
 

Hello, I a new to this forum and I am very glad that I have found all of you! I will give a little insight to my problem. I am in my thirties and have not been "back" to the dentist in eight years. My previous two trips, eight years ago, resulted in a reaction to the anesthesia. The ephinephrine in the shots made my eyes roll back in my head and my heart went crazy. The dentist had to shake me out of it, or time elapsed where I quit having the reaction. I say two trips because I gave a 2nd dentist a try and the same thing happened. So, I just quit! I am terrified to see a dentist. However, my teeth are leaking mercury and I have a terrile taste lingering in my mouth. I have to get the dental work done now. I have an appointment on July 12th and I am scared. I have hypothyroidism and have regular palpatations now too. This does not help my anxiety. The dentist said he would not use a shot with epi in it. My question is has anyone ever had this type of reaction and if so did you do okay with the other kind of shot that does not contain the epi? Thank you any and all who help me! I don't want to deal with this reaction again.:(

Welcome to NeuroTalk..

I have developed this reaction to epi as I have aged.

I found that pre-medication with a beta blocker helped tremendously. 25mg of atenolol blocked this reaction.
This is a small dose and other beta blockers may work too.
These small doses also work for stage fright and other acute anxiety reactions.

I found my dentist clueless about this, but an internal medicine doctor did agree and gave me 25mg atenolol to use when the lidocaine/epi was to be used. The non-epi substitute does not work for me. And I will not use nitrous as that is awful for your nerves and B12 status.

You will have to ask a medical doctor for help with this problem. You can not do this yourself.

Hi mickey,

Your reaction is very typical for people who have thyroid disease and/or someone who tends to have heart palpitations for unknown reasons or someone who has HBP and is anxious about being in the dental chair.

However, three things to know about dental anesthetic that every dentist knows....

One... local anesthetic with epineprhine does not be used for routine dental work. Epinephrine causes vasocontriction in the blood vessel allowing the anesthetic to work longer, not stronger. Not at all necessary during routine dental work.

Two...there are other local anesthetics that work fine on all patients without the added epinephrine. Two of them are called Mepivicaine (Carbocaine) and Prilocaine (Citanest). Prilocaine has the same duration of anesthetic affect as Lidocaine w/epi but has no epi and is is the least toxic of all the dental anesthetics.

Three.... Any dental anesthetic that is injected slowly, will cause a profound numbing affect. It is when the epi anesthetic is injected too quickly that it causes an adrenalin rush to the heart.... thus palpitations. Anesthestic without epi when injected slowly, always has a profound numbing affect.

There really is no need to take a premedication to increase the effect of the anesthetic for routine dental work. One thing to avoid for 24 hours prior to having dental work is vitamin C as it prohibits the metabolic state of the anesthetic making it harder to get numb. One supplement that does help make the anesthetic more profound is vitamin B complex when taken one hour prior to the appt.

It is not a big deal for your dentist to have either or both of these anesthetics in his office. Dental offices that don't have these are way behind the times!!

Hope this info helps.....please try not to worry so much :-))\

Bryanna