The Student Room Group

Anaesthetics at the Dentist

Hey there,

Gotta go for a partial filling tomorrow, just wondering if you guys knew any magic way to speed up the wearing off of the local anaesthetic afterwards...I'm not particularly anxious about dentistry, I just hate the feeling of numbness afterwards...sure it's better than without....but anyway. If not, what do you do whilst waiting for it wear off? Watch TV? Sleep?

Thanks

Reply 1

I dont think theres much you can do other than wait for it to wear off naturally. It doesnt take too long anyway.

Reply 2

Go for a drink..thats always a fun experience :biggrin:

In all seriousness, you can have some fillings without any anaesthetic these days can't you??

Reply 3

Yeah but my dentist likes using everything available to him so he can charge the max. :frown:

Reply 4

Nothing you can do since they took away the magic yellow spray that used to be used.

Ahhh... those were the days.

Reply 5

God I hate that lingering numbness thing..usually lasts a good few hours for me. I'm afraid I don't know of any way to get it to go away faster, just have to put up with it I think.

Reply 6

I had an anaesthetic at the dentist the other day and it didn't take too long for it to wear off... about 3 and a half hours until I had full feeling back. It's not like it's a huge dose so you can pretty much do anything you want, it didn't make me sleepy at all. Just be careful eating and drinking for the rest of the day!

Reply 7

Oh god, I had my front teeth capped and the dentist numbed my gums and my entire upper lip, it spread right up into the lower half of my nose! My lip felt HUGE for ages after but I busied myself and could feel it wearing off more in some places than others, which just felt weird, but if you distract yourself enough you won't even notice it going til it's gone - that's what happened with me (distracted myself with teh internets, lol.)

Sleeping might work! Your dentist sounds like a knob, by the way, charging you the most he can. As if dental appointments aren't expensive enough! My friend's back tooth has gone black but he's still refusing to see a dentist because of the price.

Reply 8

I'm petrified of needles so I never get the anaesthetic but I would suggest curling up on the sofa and getting your mum to pamper you when it's over, works wonders for most things :p:

Reply 9

This should work!

Reply 10

englishstudent
This should work!

OH MY GOD. Without anaesthetic??? :eek: I didn't have needles to administer the anaesthetic, that's what the anaesthetic was for (might've been numbing agent, come to think of it)! Needles poked into various places on my gums, nice.

Reply 11

Gordon Brown is a real man.

Reply 12

I had teeth out the other day and last week too :frown:

Last week I was just resting my eyes for a bit :wink: and I woke up free of numbness. The other day I didn't go back to sleep and ended up drooling all over the place! I didn't even notice until it landed on the keyboard :redface:

So yeah, my advice would be to have a nap and hope it wears off when you wake up. Quite easy to get away with, especially with early morning appointments.

Reply 13

All i know is that you have to wait a while! just do something that doesnt not involve eating or talking as much!!! thats what i did anyway!!!

Reply 14

Keep yourself busy, or have a nap for a few hours, then it won't seem like so long before the feelign comes back :smile:

Reply 15

Avoid the anaesthetic! If it is just a filling most people can do it without. And seriously the dentist can't force you to take it...
I've only had anaesthetics twice, when getting rid of teeth:p:, then it is quite necessary!

Reply 16

i work at a dental practice im training to be a dental nurse we still have the yellow spray it only lasts for 20minutes, and anesthetic isnt used just so he can charge more hes doing it for your bennifet so it is not painfull for youalso so that he can do the treatment with out the experience of pain

Reply 17

You haven't met my dentist lol, all my other ones were nice people but this new one at the practice is a butcher! Usually grasping onto my jaw and lip as he drills, I don't know which hurts more!

Reply 18

I wish the anaesthetic hadn't worn off when I had a filling done, especially not while he was doing it my mouth ached for ages I had to force myself to sleep cos it hurt too much

Reply 19

Pezking
I wish the anaesthetic hadn't worn off when I had a filling done, especially not while he was doing it my mouth ached for ages I had to force myself to sleep cos it hurt too much


Your mouth aching after the filling work has nothing to do with the anaesthetic, more the work at the time. Its not like anaesthetic is able to make the job less messy, it simply blocks pain whilst it takes place.