I hate that novacaine mouth thing. I'm glad I don't feel the dental work, but isn't there another way to handle that?

I don't mind so much when it's just a tooth or two, but I really hate when they work on the bottom teeth and my tongue gets numb.

There's general anesthesia, too, but I've never used that. I like to know what's going on. Also, I had an uncle who died in the dentist's chair when under general anesthesia. That sort of puts me off.

There's also the sodium pentathol, but I've been told that it wipes out inhibitions and that you never remember what you said or did while under it.

I've been curious about the nitrous oxide, but haven't tried it. It doesn't do anything to prevent pain, but gets you so high that you just don't care how much it hurts.

Sometimes I think it would be easier if we could just give up eating, so we wouldn't even need teeth.

*thoughts for a painless mouth*

Thanks. I'm reminding myself that it only stays sore for a few days. At least it wasn't severe enough to require stitches, which this procedure sometimes does.

ohhhh! i got one of those a couple of years ago. left side on one tuesday, right side on the next tuesday.
all done by an obnoxiously cheerful tech.
i'm still mad at her.

I've only had it done once before. It makes an ordinary cleaning seem like a party by comparison. I'ts worse than getting a tooth crowned.

Aw, man, I had that. That was worse than the removal of four wisdom teeth I had a few months later. At least with the wisdom teeth they didn't send me to the store to pick up my prescriptions with a mouthful of Novocaine and drooling blood all down my shirt.

Painwise though, not too bad. It's just the shame factor. Try drinking out of a straw or applying lip balm with your ENTIRE mouth numb. It's fun for the whole family.

Yow! I don't think mine was that severe. It was only two teeth, and the bleeding has stopped now (for good, I hope), and the pain has settled down to a dull ache- as much around the needle holes as the teeth. I didn't get a prescription for anything either. Good thing. That would have been an extra expense.