I visited the dentist today for a new crown. Before starting I told the dentist that sometimes I didn’t always numb up from whatever they use as a numbing agent. He told me they would be using Lidocaine. All was going well until the second injection. At that point it felt like I had an electrical shot in my jaw and I started feeling really anxious. I never feel anxious like that. I waited for him to finish the injection, because what more could I do? Then I told him I was feeling strange, that I never feel anxious, but was feeling anxious. I was feeling restless and I didn’t know how else to explain it. He was very calm and told me that there was also Epinephrine with the Lidocaine, and while it didn’t happen often, it did effect some people the way I described it. He said it would subside after a few minutes. I was also having a sharp pain in my chest, so I said to him, “So I am not having a heart attack? This pain in my chest is normal?” He looked at me and told me I was not having a heart attack. Okay, I felt better about that. Yet, I did not feel better at all. He explained to me why they use epinephrine and why it was making me feel the way it did. That was also reassuring. He sat there with me for awhile, but then got up and left me in the care of his assistant. (I am sorry, I am sure she has a title, but I do not know what it was.) After the doctor left I sat there for awhile. The assistant chatted with me, while I described how I was feeling. She then told me she was having palpitations…but quickly amended that to sympathy symptoms. After a few long minutes, I stopped feeling anxious, but then got the chills The chest pain subsided and it was about that time the doctor walked back into the room. I still felt a bit off and had sporadic pain in my chest, but I was ready to proceed. It was only later, when I was home that I wondered just how common or uncommon my reaction was. Especially since the assistant was having sympathy symptoms. Instead of sympathy symptoms, was she anxious for me? I had never had this reaction before, so maybe I had not had that combination of Lidocaine/Epinephrine in the past, I don’t know. The doctor also told me his wife and her mother experienced the same thing. This made me wonder if this reaction could run in families, so I mentioned my reaction to some of my siblings. One sister told me she had the same reaction. So then I told my children. My own son said he felt a similar response to the Lidocaine/Epinephrine shot, only he did not make the connection until I described it to him. Now I wonder just how common this reaction is and is it that people do not realize why they are feeling so anxious in the dentist chair.
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