dentist couldn't get me numb enough 2 do my root canal, had to stop!! anyone had similar problem?

shannonla150669 over a year ago

so, first of all, i am on 50mg/day of methadone for past issues with opiates. yesterday i went to an oral urgent care b/c my last tooth on the right top once upon a time had a cap or a filling (honestly i don't remember it's been so long) anyway, about 7 or 8 months ago, it fell off. it wasn't painful at the time so i didn't get it fixed or anything. it's been more annoying than anything b/c food will get caught. this past weekend however i was eating lunch and bit onto a cucumber and the most severe crazy pain shot up through my tooth and into my mouth. it was awful!! i couldn't make it into the oral clinic til yesterday where i learned i needed a crown lengthening surgery, a root canal and a crown fitted. awesome. they were just going to start with the lengthening procedure yesterday, but after 3 novacaine shots and 2 of something else, i could still feel them working. it didn't help that everytime they re-tested to see if i was numb yet i was told "you really shouldn't be able to feel this anymore." well, i can!! and it hurts!! after trying for about half an hour, she finally just switched the light off and told me we were done. it was my problem. they couldn't really do anything if they couldn't get me numb. now, the reason i mentioned the methadone was that i thought maybe it was the problem. i know my pain threshold has greatly diminished and my body's ability to cope with pain in almost none. i spoke with the doctor at the methadone clinic this morning though, and he said that novacaine and methadone shouldn't have anything to do with one another. he told me to go to a different dentist. except that i have no insurance so where i went is really my only option. has anyone ever experienced anything similar?? any ideas for dealing with this? b/c now i have a partially drilled out tooth that hurts even more than it did before i went to the dentist!! :-(

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Guest over a year ago

I have a back molar that needs a root canal. I had a pulpectomy a couple months ago to tide it over until I could get in to see the specialist. But a few days ago I started with this pain in the tooth so bad I can't even touch the tooth. I started to swell under my chin is the lymph gland area and then went to the specialist as they had a cancellation and were able to get me in. He gave me so much freezing and I should have been so frozen up on the right side of my jaw but I was only a tiny bit frozen. The dentist was perplexed and in order to go into the nerve to do the actual root canal to one of the roots he had to continually give me freezing right into the nerve. It was the most traumatic experience I have ever had at the dentist. I think the reason the freezing didn't take is because of the infection and the swelling. Its the only thing that could explain this. I have never had this issue before either. The dentist did say that this is a very delicate tooth that will require special treatment and that not to worry as he will not stop until the root canal is complete. He also told me another option is to actually put me under in order to complete the root canal but this is a last resort. He has me on antibiotics and I am hoping that the next appointment will be different. I hope the swelling is at a minimum as I really think this is what caused the problem. I will let you know next week if it was. Wendy

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boh88ca216621 over a year ago

Wendy,you are right.If there is an infection,the freezing would not work 100 per cent.In the meantime,an old European tip is to get real cloves and bite into them exactly where the pain is.The clove will numb the pain and is a natural antibiotic.Try it..you have nothing to loose but your pain.

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Guest over a year ago

A couple days ago I had the same exact problem. They gave me 3 shots of nova cane and another 3 shots of this other stuff, and the guy said in all his 37 years of dentistry i was the first person that he couldn't get numb. I have the worst pain of all in my upper farthest right molar!! I just want it to go away, he gave up, but did refer me to a specialist but my appointment is not til next week! But the dentist did give me Vikaprophen (a mix between vikaden and ibuprofen) but it doesn't even make a difference in my pain. I have gotten a total of 15 minutes of sleep in the last 48 hours. I'm desperate for answers!! so I went to another dentist for his opinion and this guys doesn't even think it is an abcess, he thinks I have TMD which is a distorder effecting the muscle TMJ. anyways I need help too

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paul over a year ago

Same problem. I had been having an irritating pain at the top of a molar that was crowned. Told to use sensodyne. After 6 months, pain was worse, and I wanted it treated. X Rays showed some separation at the crown/gum area. Dentist was to replace the older crown. Drilling put me into horrible sharp pain. Dentist couldn't get me numb. He is a good dentist. Said it was an angry nerve and sent me to an endodontist for a root canal. Told the endo the dentist couldn't numb me. The Endo used something else for this problem, and immediately numbed me. Performed a 45 minute pain free root canal. Returned to my primary dentist who proceeded to drill for the new crown. No pain. Glad I have private dental insurance. At least 50% gets paid for.

Get a root canal. Shortcuts/cost savers don't work.

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marcylynn78 over a year ago

I just experienced this last week when I had distil wedge surgery & was supposed to be on the top and bottom. They gave me like 10 shots of novacane & it's weird because the bottom gums numbed up fine but the top no way could he barely even touch it! I am not sure what's going on but if I find anything else out I will let you know. I go back Thursday to talk to a specialist.

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Ashley over a year ago

I had that happen to me, except when they couldn't give me any more freezing he told me it would hurt but it had to be done. He continued to give me a rout canal without freezing. It was the worst pain i have ever experienced!

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Guest over a year ago

i hada root canal and got three shots, totally numb, np pian, even fell asleep during the root canal. had a post and core, no pian, i needed a crown lengthening and a differnt dentist gave me one shot, i was not numb enough, got two more shots, not numb enough, then got 2 shots of stronger numb stuff and i was still not as numb as when i had other procedures. i would say 75% numb. I could feel the work they were doing, simalr to your fingernail cratching your gums. I wonder why they could not get me numb? could it be because i take the medicine ritalin? sorry for the bad grammer and spelling, etc. Im too tired to care =)

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Dean over a year ago

Today I had a tooth that needed pulling. After 5 or 6 injections of novacaine and an hour of excruciating pain the dentist gave up and sent me to an oral surgeon. Due to the nitrous i couldn't tell you how many injections he gave me, but he ended up drilling into my tooth and giving me an injection thru the root directly into the nerve... Holy cr*p, it was like an electric shock, and it still didn't get numb. Pulled it anyway. Sheesh, at least the gas helped...

he told me as I was leaving that I was a mystry to him!

dean

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rdunski93 over a year ago

Yeah I just went to the dentist and they shot me up good. The whole side of my mouth was numb except for the tooth they had to work on. They kept shooting me up and I could still feel them working on it. I just suffered through the pain. I think methadone has something to do with it cause I'm on 100 mg a day.

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Guest over a year ago

I went to the dentist back in October to have a molar removed bottom left they could not know me I think they gave me maybe 10 shots of the numbing stuff nothing worked I felt everything by then she was drilling my tooth it was halfway drilled I could not take the pain anymore I told her to get her hands off of me I ended up believing they gave me pain pills for the night because my tooth was cracked in half and I went to an oral surgeon the next day they had to put me completely under so a $360 extraction then costed me $1,100 out of pocket because I do not have insurance needless to say I was not happy about it and tomorrow I need to go to the dentist and have 2 more teeth extracted one is a wisdom one has a hole in it bottom left side so I'm freaking out a little bit I'm terrified that they're not going to be able to numb me my nerves are taking over

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Guest over a year ago

What did your endo use to numb you? After 4 shots to today & being sent home by myndentist,I'm scared.
Thanks for the hope

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Guest over a year ago

Yes this also happened to me yesterday it might be because you need antibiotics cause of an infection in the tooth so now I'm going to take these antibiotics called amoxidin something like that and go again

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Guest over a year ago

I have little things in my teeth that are like kidney stones, it's basically a calcium build up inside the tooth and if you get these it makes it hard to freeze.

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Guest over a year ago

I had the same issue when the dentist was drilling for a new crown. Could not numb it. Not a drug user of any type. He sent me to an endontist, think that's the right name, a root canal specialist. Numbed in seconds. The specialist explained they use different numbing drugs than regular dentists do.

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