A Dental question.
Discussion
Hoping that someone can give me some advice here. Went to the dentist on thursday, a guy i hadn't used before but as i had an abcess i needed to see someone quite quickly. Now, i'm not a regular visitor to the dentist so not registered with nhs dentist locally hence going private, he took a look and told me what was required and agrees to see me the following day, i asked him about the abcess and he said no problem. One thing i always ask for is to be sedated, works for me and gets the job done. I returned on friday, we agreed what needed doing and so he proceeded to sedate me in the chair and all seemed fine until i realised i knew exactly what was going on, all the way through the procedure i knew which teeth he was working on, i could hear every word he was saying even recall him taking a phone call during the procedure! On previous occasions,once sedated,i don't recall a thing and when i come round usually feel quite euphoric. Also whilst extracting a tooth it felt like he was about to break my jaw, the pain was excrutiating, my missus in the waiting room could hear everything and thought he was murdering me. At least three times during the procedure i told him quite clearly that i was still awake only to be told it's ok, you're doing fine. My question to you guys is this, having paid a considerable amount to be sedated should i now ask for a refund because quite clearly it wasn't done correctly and also the fact it hurt like hell when extracting the abcessed tooth should he have drained it first. Over to you.
KEET said:
i told him quite clearly that i was still awake only to be told it's ok, you're doing fine.
If you were not still awake then I would be more worried! while sedated you do stay conscious at all times. Normally you remain responsive but dont remember anything afterwards (which i believe is how you describe previous visits), but it is possible that for one reason or another (it could be that you werent sedated to a suitable level, or that your response to the drugs was different for some reason) you didnt have the same experience as normal.regarding the pain, did he give you an injection of local anaesthetic? with an abscess it does frequently become more difficult to achieve suitable anaesthesia because the infection blocks the anaesthetic.
Im not necessarily saying that you couldnt have been dealt with better, but it is difficult to know exactly what happened without further details.
KEET said:
Not wanting to sound over dramatic but when the abcessed tooth was coming out it was the most painful thing i have ever experienced, surely sedation and the correct amount of anaesthetic should have rendered me immune to this? any dentists on here?
how many injections did he give you? (and which tooth did you have out? upper or lower?)if he still continued to take the tooth out after you said that you could still feel pain then that isnt very nice at all. In my experience (even if it is limited to only about 50 extractions over 3 years of training so far), there should be no need to cause more than mild discomfort for any dental procedure.
as i said previously, a tooth with an abscess often proves more difficult to anaesthetise, but that doesnt mean you shouldnt do everything you can to try and make it numb!
Was hooked up to the monitoring machine and he also took my blood pressure a couple of times during the procedure. Had intravenous sedation in my right hand, on previous occasions once the injection goes in, i go out, to the point i don't recall a thing! This time however it just wasn't the same. I was given numerous injections in the mouth, one felt like he'd put it straight into the abcess which i can honestly say brought tears to my eyes.
speedychrissie, i had an upper rear tooth removed, he had injected it twice and immediatley proceeded to pull the tooth, at this point i started making considerable noise and i know i swore at him, again he said i was doing very well and it wouldn't take much longer! On previous occassions i had no pain at all until a few hours later when the anaesthetic had worn off, this time i was in total agony for hours afterwards, can't be right.
KEET said:
Was hooked up to the monitoring machine and he also took my blood pressure a couple of times during the procedure. Had intravenous sedation in my right hand, on previous occasions once the injection goes in, i go out, to the point i don't recall a thing! This time however it just wasn't the same. I was given numerous injections in the mouth, one felt like he'd put it straight into the abcess which i can honestly say brought tears to my eyes.
I used to sedate patients intravenously and non could remember the treatment. Some patients did say that they weren't "under" whilst undergoing treatment but couldn't remember anything afterwards!Sorry you were in pain.
KEET said:
i had an upper rear tooth removed, he had injected it twice
that is the minimum i would do. if there was an obvious infection i would expect to have to do 3 injections: one on the inside, one on the outside and atleast one down the surface of the root.plus i always check to see if the patient is numb before trying to actually extract the tooth.
what i suspect happened is that you were sedated, but that the local anaesthetic failed to remove all of the pain, and the pain you experienced when he started the extraction "brought you back" so that the level of sedation was not enough.
speedychrissie, one question for you, if i was sedated why do i remember everything? I was clearly aware of his work during the RCT even when he was pushing something into the hole and pulling it out again quite forcibly, i heard the drill everytime and the smell was bloody awful! Not convinced i was properly sedated hence my original question. This experience has seriously put me off ever seeing a dentist again!
KEET said:
speedychrissie, one question for you, if i was sedated why do i remember everything?
ah, i think i overlooked part of your initial post. I hadnt realised that he did other work before he did the extraction. In that case i suspect you are right and you werent sedated to quite the correct level.dont let one bad experience put you off us altogether. there are some good dentists out there too!
Thanks for the replies, unfortunately it was a bad experience in the first place that put me off whilst at school. Think i need to go anyway, the tooth that required RCT feels like a raw nerve now, not had a problem previosuly other than it was cracked! Do i go back and question his attempt or find someone else?
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