My adventure at the Dentist today

yikes, that's a horrible story!! Good luck when you go back!

Makes me want to climb in the chair today. 

No fun! I don't like dental work. I had a cavity filled a year or two ago, and I swear when they did the shot I could feel the anesthetic traveling through my mouth. Sort of made me light-headed. Maybe I was imagining things, but it was a very weird feeling. I was glad to have it over with, and hopefully no more dental work for a long while!

I have a very weird reaction to the shots too. It's the epinephrine, so now I only get shots without the epi. Eg. I get carbocaine instead of novacaine. Works just fine, without the "traveling" sensation, and then lightheaded and nauseated, palpitations...you get the picture. I heard Auntie Marj had the same reaction to novacaine.

Brad, they probably thought you were having an anaphylactic reaction to the drug. Your throat swells, breathing is distressed and next thing you know, you're dead. All in as little as 10 minutes. They did the right thing. If they didn't call and it had progressed, we'd all be consoling Valorie right now.

Everything you say makes sense to me!. Except for the part about consoling Valorie--she would be celebrating.  haha

Interesting, Ellie, I wonder if I was having something similar to what you'd experienced. I've had fillings before, though, and nothing like that, so it seemed strange it would just happen that one time. But maybe next time I need dental work (hopefully not any time soon!) I'll ask about epiniphrine.

awww Brad, crazy.  Hhaha Valorie would NOT be celebrating. I also went to the dentist today.  I'd really like to know how many hours I've spent in the dentist chair.  I lost count of my fillings at about age 14.  Oh ya, and I have 2 more cavities right now! ugh.

Well, I sure do know that I would not be celebrating if it were her! I miss her when she's with you all, but am glad she gets to go and has the job freedom to do it!!

Brad you are so nice!!  I LOVE going to the dentist!!  I really do..  I was so bummed to find out I was born without wisdom teeth.  I have only had a couple fillings in my life so I mostly go for cleanings and it is so relaxing: )

Wow, Robie.  You can share Sean's nightmare of wisdom teeth extraction.  That was so sweet of you to say that, Brad.  He thinks I am just waiting to cash in on the life insurance.  I really don't mind the dentist.  When I was a child I went in and had 13 cavities that began from the inside of my teeth from a high fever.  I used to have them filled without any novacaine.  High tolerance for pain back then. 

Everything went perfect this morning. I asked them what type of painkiller they would use this time, and they used exactly what Ellie recommended (carbocaine) They also did not inject the roof of my mouth, which caused some pain during the final drilling, but not unbearable. Ellie--you can send your bill for consultation services to me, it was well worth it!! No problems swallowing and very little pain. The dentist is not to be feared.

Glad that turned out well for you Brad. The epinephrine is in the injection to help control bleeding. In response to your question Aimee, there can be a myriad of reasons why you had a reaction now, but not in the past. Things change, eg. allergies and our immune response to them. Another example would be a woman's response to a given stimulus while pregnant versus not pregnant etc. But it's probably as simple as the amount of the drug, and the speed  and angle with which it was injected. How quickly did it reach the blood stream? And how sensitive are you to the stimulation of epi? I'm sure you get the picture.