What is Fibro Feelings?

“Well that sucks…good luck!” Not exactly the text message you want to receive from your dentist, but it’s the one I got. Although I wasn’t having any pain, my dentist decided that two of my teeth’s fillings needed to have crowns made instead. From the start of the appointment, things were not looking up. The local anesthetic, septocaine, was not working well. I was needing a lot of it to originally get numb and it wore off quickly. This resulted in more needle sticks, more time sitting at the dentist and I ended up feeling buzzed. I tried to write thank you notes while waiting for more of the medicine to kick in and kept making mistakes because I couldn’t think clearly. I’ve never had that type of reaction to a local anesthetic, but then again, I’ve never needed so a large quantity. Luckily I wasn’t driving home. The dentist thinks something with my pregnancy may have changed things.

As the medicine was wearing off and the pain was setting in I raided the freezer for ice cream – the only thing I could imagine trying to eat. By one hour after the appointment the entire side of my mouth, top and bottom was throbbing in pain, but also that area and my jaw were constantly hurting and I still felt buzzed from the medicine. My relatives said that I seemed to be in more pain than they’d ever had with a crown. I figured I’d let it go a day or two since my jaw is usually very sore and painful even after fillings because of my fibromyalgia.

What followed was nearly a month of horrible jaw and mouth pain in that same area. I also had extreme pain from hot and cold sensitivity. At first the dentist thought I might have a sinus infection (I had a few of those other symptoms too), so I did a round of antibiotics. That didn’t help much. I’d gone back to the dentist to make sure the crowns were fitting well and that there wasn’t any protruding dental glue. All seemed fine so they said I might need a root canal. A week later I saw an endodontist who confirmed that I needed root canals. Unfortunately, they were closed for a week and booked another week, so it was three more weeks until I could get the root canals. I ended up taking OTC and prescription strength pain killers (I stopped breast feeding) over that time frame and my teeth were barely hurting by the time of my first root canal appointment. Even my fibromyalgia was feeling better since I’d be taking more pain killers =)

I was very nervous to get my root canals, especially after the issues I had with the medicine during my fillings. My Twitter friends recommended that I use a bite block, which I did. The endodontist used a computerized shot system, which left an ulcer in the roof of my mouth(he said that rarely happens) during the first one. The root canals themselves weren’t too bad and my teeth did feel better afterward. My post-procedure jaw pain was actually less than I typically feel from fillings. I dealt with their local anesthetic much better and only needed extra medicine one of the times. I’m so relieved to have that done with!

Have you ever reacted badly to a local anesthetic?

The endodontist even left me in charge of the suction while reading an Arthritis Today magazine and waiting for my blood to clot.