It is common to hear someone returning from the dentist to complain of the facial numbness or drooping caused by the novocaine injection used to mitigate the pain during a procedure. However, novocaine has been replaced in most family dental offices with a more modern anesthetic called lidocaine. While lidocaine carries less inherent risk than novocaine, the best solution for risk-free dentistry is still circumventing the need for local anesthetics all together.
The Drawbacks of Local Anesthesia
Novocaine was a wonder tool for dentists at its inception, but has since been replaced with a more patient-friendly alternative. While novocaine was effective at mitigating the pain associated with dental drilling, it had a few major drawbacks, and lidocaine improves upon some of them. The drawbacks associated with dental local anesthetics are:
- Novocaine was slow to set in, and would often need to be applied more than once. This often left patients alone for minutes on end in dental chairs, which can be quite unsettling for children or those weary about the dentist. Lidocaine addresses this issue by setting in much more rapidly, with a bit more predictable and easily adjusted numbing.
- Novocaine, in rare cases, sparked an allergic reaction. Lidocaine is much less likely to feature any sort of allergic reaction, making it a far safer option across the board.
- Both anesthetics leave cheeks, lips, tongues, and even the side of the patient’s face numb for an average of 1.5 – 2 hours. This can lead to children missing even more school due to an appointment, parents missing more work, leaves patients unable to safely eat, and comes with the inherent risk of injury to the inner tongue or cheek.
- Lidocaine and novocaine are both administered with a syringe, compounding those with a fear of dentistry and needles to have a very poor experience. This can lead to an increased fear of dental procedures, especially in children.
The Anesthesia Alternative
Laser dentistry may sound intimidating at first, but it poses a very viable solution to those adverse to local anesthesia. Not only is it almost entirely pain free, patients enjoy no lingering effects upon leaving the office. Bitterroot Dental, Missoula’s Top Rated Local® family dentist, is proud to bring this innovative practice to the community.
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