I ended up having two get two cavities filled. First one was pretty awful, they shot me up about 4 times, and it still was quite unpleasant, the anesthesia did virtually nothing. Second cavity appointment, they shot me up literally 8 FUCKING TIMES, and it was so bad I couldn’t finish up the procedure. They ended up doing a partial cover on the cavity, and now I have an appointment to get knocked out to fix the tooth. I never had this problem in the US, and now once this last procedure is done I’ve vowed to never do any dental work in Japan.
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It happened to my 7 year old once, it was horrible. Change dentist if you’re not satisfied.
I’ve had cavities filled several times and there was never an issue with the local anesthetic. But it must be really terrible for you.
Do you drink fairly regularly? If so, they need to give you higher doses.
You might have an anatomical varient of nerves. I had the same and they ended up doing a higher nerve block and injected right in the hinge of my jaw
It happened to me a couple of times that dentists had to re-shoot, but never more than once, and I am a complete sissy when it comes to teeth.
But Japanese doctors have in my experience a pretty archaic view, when it comes to pain management, so I can see, where your dentist is likely coming from. I’d try to find a more accommodating doctor.
All the best!
My dentist knows I have very little tolerance for pain and will numb the area pretty readily. Once that’s done though, I usually don’t have any trouble. No problems with past dentists either. Hope you get it sorted.
Yep. I explained that I would need more and he was just like, “haha everyone thinks they need more” and ignored me. I was in so much pain I decided to just do it in hopes of ending the pain. It was fucking *excruciating* and the bastard just says, “oh, wow, you actually still feel it?”
I fucking *told you* that I would!
Many times. Couldn’t continue with a root canal once cos they had given me the max lidocaine.
So far I’ve just had a root canal here. Didn’t have to use anesthesia.
I had issues back home sometimes but the one time I needed a filling in Japan I didn’t feel a thing. I was worried beforehand but they were great!
I had that happen to me when I was in the military. I got a root canal and it took around 8 shots before I felt any bit or relief. After I got out of the military, I went to a Japanese dentist and he was able to properly sedate me with one shot.
Long story short, your dentist was inexperienced. Find a new dentist.
I’ve had not enough, but the place I see is responsive and will pause and do more, I haven’t had it not work at all. But a heads up along those lines, the anesthesia I got at for a colonoscopy didn’t work, apparently that happens sometimes. For me it wasn’t painful, but I’m going to be a bit more proactive about letting them know I would like a higher dose in the future. I’m not a heavy drinker so I don’t know what the problem is, unless just bigger than they are used to?
It happened to me and hurt like buggery. The dentist fobbed me off by saying it was too close to the bone to inject at that location. (Pure bullshit), Later, someone explained to me that the anesthetic is a very big cost component to their business and unethical dentists will skimp on the injection. The solution was probably watered down somehow. They’re supposed to test and check with you by inserting a needle or similar implement into the site and asking if you feel anything,
My husband is a dentist so I asked him about your situation. He said novocaine does not give a consistent result depending on the patient’s body condition. Things like stress, fatigue, and other factors related to physical condition on the day of treatment can influence its effectiveness. He said if a patient is still feeling pain after a third injection he stops treatment and reschedules the patient for another day.
Nope, no problem at the dentist for a couple fillings. Talked to him beforehand and explained that I have had a few problems in the past with numbing medication not working. and he said no problem if there’s pain, he will take care of it.
Do you happen to have red hair? There is a gene mutation that can cause anesthetics to not work as well on those with red hair. I have red hair and only remember 3 times when the anesthetics did not work when I lived in the US, now any time I have a procedure done that needs numbing, I talk to the doctor about it beforehand and never an issue.
I’ve had two regular wisdom teeth extracted, one impacted wisdom tooth taken out at a teaching hospital, and one really dicey root canal, in addition to more regular stuff. Over the years I’ve learned a fair bit about dental pain management.
One major thing is, it *really* matters exactly where your pain is. Some teeth are easy to anesthetize, some are way more difficult – it’s difficult to hit the spot and the numbing will last a very short time. I haven’t asked in detail but it seems to be related to how close you are to a major nerve bundle and how much blood is flowing through the area.
A really good dentist will know exactly how to get it right. A bad dentist (I’ve had one or two) will not. The anesthesiologist at the teaching hospital was a freaking Paganini, and the hospital dentist who handled the initial part of my root canal (a molar split in three, basically) was also excellent, as is my current dentist who did the non-urgent work on that tooth as well other work later on.
What’s your ancestry? If you’re Scottish then you’re shit out of luck. There’s apparently a whole bunch of us that are basically immune to a lot of local anesthetics. I’ve found lidocaine is the best, but still only gives about 10 minutes at full dose.
I have had the same problem. My dentist told me that I have little pain tolerance but I don’t think so. The anesthesia is weaker imho. Also he wait like 10 seconds. Gotta give it some time for it to be effective.
I think you should change dentists. My only pain-free dental experience was in Japan