First, let me say this was not your normal dentist visit. It was not ‘a clean and polish’ visit. It was major oral surgery: two implants and a gum graft. More than 5 hours in the chair! Oh, he kept me well numbed so not much pain involved but there was a fair amount of stress in the procedure.
I had promised Jill I would keep her informed about progress. When I had a chance, I reached for my mobile: MIA! We were waiting for the aesthetic to kick in so I asked for a couple of minutes and grabbed my laptop. I could not type a short email. My tremors were so bad I had to one finger, “hunt and peck” to get her a message. Even then it was garbled.
From a previous visit, I knew that the local anesthetic contained Epinephrine. A little pain getting the injection + a little stress + Epinephrine == really bad tremors for me. You can request a local anesthetic without Epinephrine. I was informed that it takes longer to become effective and it doesn’t last as long. IIRC with the old teeth anesthetic you had to wait for 15 minutes or more before the dentist could start working and it took what seemed to be forever to lose its effectiveness. Something like a half a day with a numbed mouth.
Opinion: The addition of Epinephrine to the local dental anesthetic is a money/time saving strategy without tangible benefits to the patient. I could be wrong. Perhaps I am.
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