Went in for a crown the other day. The dentist got called away to a different patient midway through. Anesthesia started wearing off. Dentist took her time with the other patient. I was fairly tensed up by the time she got back. I was doing my best to balance being polite with limiting how much the pain affected me. The longer she was gone, the less I was able to pretend I wasn’t in pain. My strategy for pain management is tensing inwards, and I hadn’t raised my voice or cursed. I was waiting for my turn.
A friend who works there later told me that the dentist said I scared her and she thought I was going to harm her. I can’t seem to make sense of that. I can’t think of what threatening behavior I displayed, unless dentists getting attacked by patients is just a thing they have to deal with.
“…she thought I was going to harm her”.
That’s unfair, your dentist caused harm to you during your procedure because they were (I’m assuming here and making connections to try and stand up for you. You gotta fill in some of the blanks here) unable to plan accordingly for your crown.
You had a traumatic experience due to something that wasn’t your fault and it sounds like the dentist is likely unaware of how you felt. Did you speak up and let them know that you were in an amount of pain that you were having trouble dealing with during the procedure?
Yes. The dental assistant insisted to the dentist after I started writhing. Flexing my leg muscles serves no function, but at that point I was doing anything to center myself.
Got more Lidocane. Felt better, continued procedure. They make the crowns in house, but by the time it was done, so was the second dose. They said I shouldn’t be in pain, and they couldn’t give me anything more. The final bit of drilling on my tooth-nubbin was excruciating and the UV resin curing was unexpected - it burns.
I’m pretty resistant to novocaine and always have to ask them for more shots than they want to give. You gotta be forceful with them and stand up for yourself. It’s not worth writhing in pain because some jackass thinks they know your body better than you.
My wife is incredibly resistant to Novocaine. She’s gotta arrive at the dentist just after throwing back a Klonopin and even then her most recent bit of dental work required a total of SIX VIALS on increasingly stronger Novocaine.
But then she’ll get general anesthesia and not even get through half the pediatric dose before she’s knocked out way longer than recovery would expect despite being almost 5’11" and weighing like 190lbs. Like when she was ordering her wedding dress the people making it thought she was trolling because there’s no way her shoulders were as wide as she said they were. Iirc she had to provide a picture of her taking the measurements so they could see that she wasn’t trolling or measuring wrong.
She’s also a super lightweight with alcohol so it’s like if it crosses the blood brain barrier she’s fucking done and if not she’s a walking tank.
Dentists have a few alternatives to Novocaine that they can use, I know lidocaine is safe for dental applications and lasts a little longer than Novocaine for most people. If she’s resistant to Novocaine but not other pain blockers she’s used it’s probably worth asking about trying something else.
Do you by any chance have red hair?
The pain medication affects red heads differently, and they usually need more than most people do.
I have ginger facial hair. My dentist told me that’s why I need more pain meds. She’s the only dentist I’ve ever had who doesn’t hurt me and it’s because she’s willing to dose me way beyond normal.
I also get incredible anxiety waiting at the dentist (even with her, who I absolutely adore) because of the uncertainty of when the procedure will end.
My wife is the same way. Not ginger that we can tell but the pain meds and anxiety are pretty similar. She’s gotta throw back a full Klonopin to not have ridiculous anxiety in the dentist and still needs multiple vials of numbing to do anything. Took her forever to find a dentist that actually listened to her about the Novocaine not working well and to actually get proper numbed before dental work.
If she’s got any ginger family that’s probably it. A single allele of red hair gives you the drug resistance, pain resistance, and some red facial and body hair. The second makes the head hair red
I was just coming to speculate the same thing. Fellow ginger?
Edit - i actually have a low grade fear of going to thr dentist because it is often painful or traumatic. Finally had to tell my dentists that I have a dental fear from pain due to meds wearing off fast.
Yup, I’m a fellow ginger. Fucking hate going to the dentist, it always hurts no matter how much they give me :(
Are you a redhead? Not too be creepy, but I’ve heard that they are resistant to anesthesia.
Jesus Christ, my worst case dentist scenario in print.