Local Anesthesia – Greensboro NC

Sometimes dentists need to do more in-depth work than your regular cleanings & exams. Due to the sensitivity of your teeth & gums, some treatment may require local anesthetic medication to cause numbness.

You may have heard of dentists using Novocain to numb patients’ mouths, but Novocain is not actually used anymore. Modern dentists use much safer & more effective drugs such as lidocaine. These are usually combined with other substances such as vasoconstrictors to increase the effectiveness & duration of the anesthesia.

At Dentistry Revolution, we use technology to take away the discomfort typically associated with local anesthetics. While we still rely on injectable anesthetics, our technology-guided system helps us provide more localized numbness than the traditional methods. Plus, we use a medication to reverse the numbing effects quickly & comfortably, so you can experience a pain-free procedure without the lasting numbness.

What Is Local Anesthesia?

Local anesthesia is used to make a very small, specific area of your body temporarily unable to feel sensations, including pain. Examples of procedures requiring local anesthesia include fillings, crown placement & root canals.

A local anesthetic works by blocking nerve cells in a specific area from sending pain signals to your brain. You can expect this numbness to last for two to four hours, which means you might still  feel residual numbness after your appointment. However, we use a reversing agent that should bring back feeling quicker.

Before you undergo a procedure requiring local anesthesia, we will ask for information regarding any allergies & the medications you take. There is a possibility you might need a different formula if you have certain medical conditions. Call us if you have concerns or wish to know more about how we use local anesthesia.

What To Expect

With traditional local anesthetics, some patients feel a stinging sensation from the injection, which is caused by the anesthetic drug entering the body & beginning to work. The high tech anesthetic system we use reduces the stinging sensation by regulating the flow of the anesthetic for a more comfortable numbing experience.

Side Effects

Local anesthesia does have side effects, but they are usually not serious. One well-known side effect is a temporary rapid heartbeat, which can happen if the local anesthetic is injected into a blood vessel. One of the chemicals used in the local anesthetic injection, epinephrine, can travel directly from the blood vessel to the heart. You may also know epinephrine by its other name: adrenaline. It is a naturally occurring substance in your body that can rapidly increase your heart rate. The fast heartbeat it causes can be alarming, but it is not dangerous & should return to normal in a matter of seconds.

Numbness

The numbness from local anesthesia can take a couple hours to wear off, which may inhibit proper speaking & eating. Patients who wait for the anesthetic to wear off should be careful about biting & chewing—they could bite their tongue or cheek & not feel it! To prevent this, we use a reversing agent to bring you back to normal more quickly so you can get back to your day without worrying about a lopsided smile.

Appointments 7:30am-7pm & on Saturdays!


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