I've just had a dental filling without anesthetic
4 comments
I have pain feeling sometimes even with anestetic, so I always choose to use it it when the doctor asks.
I had a bunch dental of work done all in one month when i was a kid; i built up a tolerance to Novocaine and for the last two visits it had no effect. Teeth pulled wasn't that bad; or at least it was over quick.
The 4 fillings were a trial. i broke the arm off their chair trying to hold still for that. Driving home afterwards stands in my memory, to this day decades later, as the stupidest i've ever been on the road. Miracle i didnt kill anyone.
It changed my relationship to pain and how i processed it. And kept me away from dentists 'til it was time for dentures.
The 4 fillings were a trial. i broke the arm off their chair trying to hold still for that. Driving home afterwards stands in my memory, to this day decades later, as the stupidest i've ever been on the road. Miracle i didnt kill anyone.
It changed my relationship to pain and how i processed it. And kept me away from dentists 'til it was time for dentures.
I've had a few fillings without anesthetic. My dentist told me that most of the pain of drilling is because the drill bit and tooth heat up through friction. Modern drills have water cooling and don't heat up at all. So for shallow fillings there is no pain.
My two root canal procedures did have local anesthetic though. Didn't hurt either.
My two root canal procedures did have local anesthetic though. Didn't hurt either.
Had several fillings but never had an anaesthetic for any of them, only for a tooth removal. It wasn't even suggested, though I could have asked for it I guess.
Seems to me that the pain of the anaesthetic needle and the numbness would be worse than the drill.
Seems to me that the pain of the anaesthetic needle and the numbness would be worse than the drill.
I'm absolutely gob-smacked.
There was absolutely no pain or discomfort at all.
Not one single bit.
If I had had an anaesthetic, the pain of the needle going in, and injection would have been the and the only pain of the procedure.
So, I'm now in Berlin, and the dentist I like, trust and prefer is here, so I'd made an appointment for a general check-up before I arrived.
I had that yesterday, all was well, except for needing one filling.
So I go today for that filling, and dentist says to me, "how about not having anaesthetic?"
And I'm like... "is that a thing? wouldn't there then be considerable pain?"
She says, well, it varies, and it can be just fine. If it doesn't work, we use anaesthetic.
So I say let's try it, and we do, and it worked - it was amazing.
It was so much easier in the mind, without anaesthetic.
Before, my belief had been - having always, always had anaesthetic - that anaesthetic was needed and necessary and always used because the procedures induce considerable pain.
So when I've been in the dental chair, my belief has been that what's being done would be very painful, if it were not for the anaesthetic.
So I'm laying there, and I'm fine with it, used to it, so I'm relaxed enough, but still my basic assumption is that something very painful is occurring, which is being masked. There's an inherent tension in being in that situation.
Turns out at least some of the time it has in fact not been painful because there has been no pain.
Laying there then without anaesthetic and experiencing no pain, it is then clear that there is no pain, and so there is no tension.
So, my question to y'all - have you had this before? have you had fillings without anaesthetic?