- #1
zoobyshoe
- 6,510
- 1,290
This morning I went to the dentist and when she shot me up I was startled to feel that the metal body of the hypodermic was hot when rested it against my lip. I stopped her and asked if she had heated up the novocaine. She said it wasn't hot, merely warm, and proceeded with the shot without offering any explanation.
I have two separate ideas about why she might have done this. I'm about 100% certain that the tooth in question was infected and the usual approach is to treat the infection before proceeding with work because lidocaine doesn't work on infected teeth. Heating the lidocaine might somehow get around this problem. This "hot shot" was actually the second she gave me. The first, cool, one numbed my lip well but didn't touch the tooth pain. In fact, the pressure of the injected lidocaine made the pain worse.
The second guess is that she hadn't actually heated the lidocaine, or intended to, but had merely just taken the hypodermic body out of an autoclave. The second shot was farther back on the jaw and vastly more painful, indicating she'd targeted a more basic nerve and used a lot more lidocaine.
Anyone certain why the "hot shot"?
I have two separate ideas about why she might have done this. I'm about 100% certain that the tooth in question was infected and the usual approach is to treat the infection before proceeding with work because lidocaine doesn't work on infected teeth. Heating the lidocaine might somehow get around this problem. This "hot shot" was actually the second she gave me. The first, cool, one numbed my lip well but didn't touch the tooth pain. In fact, the pressure of the injected lidocaine made the pain worse.
The second guess is that she hadn't actually heated the lidocaine, or intended to, but had merely just taken the hypodermic body out of an autoclave. The second shot was farther back on the jaw and vastly more painful, indicating she'd targeted a more basic nerve and used a lot more lidocaine.
Anyone certain why the "hot shot"?