Yesterday I had a cavity filled on the bottom left side of my mouth. The dentist gave me the usual shots of anaesthesia and all was well. Today he had to fill a cavity on the bottom right side on my mouth, but the anaesthesia just wasn’t kicking in. After a few shots he said he can’t give me anymore anaesthesia and we rescheduled for another day.
Any idea why anaesthesia would work one day and not work the next day?
Edit: I should mention that my tongue went numb, but not the area around my teeth.
In: Other
Your nerve might not be in the spot where the dentist injected the anesthetic. Facial nerves are broadly symmetrical, but not identical, I have a similar problem where one side is about 2 in lower than the other, so the dentist kept missing it. Because it’s a localized drug, it needs to get really close to the nerve otherwise it’s not effective and gets dissipated in your blood; but there’s only so much anesthetic your body can safely metabolize so your doc wants you to get rid of it first.
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