Reaction to dental anaesthetic

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Just wondering if this was AS related as I've heard people on here discussing drug hypersensitivity.

If I need a tooth numbed, the dentist always has to give me the maximum dose of anaesthetic and even then it doesn't seem to go completely numb and the numbness always starts to wears off before the treatment is fully done. On the other hand, it has very strange effects in other ways. I shiver a lot although not from cold, sometimes cry, feel all weak and shaky, feel as if my feet aren't touching the ground when I walk and sometimes get strange visuals of colours and lights. That can last an hour or two and once it is done, I'm so tired I need to sleep for the rest of the day.

I've found that I'm hyposensitive to most other meds as well. Doctors have to prescribe me high doses and any over-the-counter painkiller does nothing for my pain. But I've never noticed any other odd side effects from them.

Does anyone else get this?

I am like this with dental freezing. It doesn't take, but I am told I also have a nerve where one shouldn't be and none where one should be. I've had work done where we agreed that was as good as it would get and I'd tell him if it 'zinged' too much. I've had the front of my lips freeze when it should have been a back tooth and my tongue. I am an adventure, but I have an amazing dentist and we work it out.

The shakes and other effects might be because the kind of freezing he is using has adrenaline - you could ask because there are alternatives. Do they offer you a warm blanket? That helps reduce the shakes.

Other meds I am hypersensitve to and I get some pretty bizarre and sometimes scary and serious side effects - usually from the rare or uncommon list. Still other times, there is "nothing". I try not to have to take any because it is such a crap shoot. If I am told it is a small dose and few side effects, I am a skeptic because until it is in my body that claim is unproven and the chances for something unexpected are proven by my experience. I always say to think of what you would give a child - that's the dose I start at and that's enough to give me trouble.

I have a similar reaction to the anesthetic. I feel very jittery and shakey. A bad anxious like, somethings wrong or something bad is about to happen. Slightly nauseous and spaced out.

A very uncomfortable feeling.

I need the high dose for pain management of a recurring back injury, I take Endone or Codein but it never leaves me pain free.

Ask about the adrenaline in the freezing - there are other kinds to try.

That sounds right, Logicalmom. It feels just like an adrenaline rush - when you have the fight-or-flight response then feel all weird afterwards when the fear/anger has gone.

I will ask at the dentist if there is anything else they can use, though if it costs more I might have to go private rather than NHS to get it and I can't afford to do that at the moment. Ah well, the side effects aren't too bad and I know exactly what to expect by now.

I have always been undersensetive to anaesthetic and now have to ensure that they know to up the dose.

Nope, but I think this is one of those extremes, just like other aspects we have.

I'm undersenstive just like others and require more.

I am glad to know where those extreme shakes come from when I get anesthetized at the dentists. I once thought that I was going to have a seizure!

Here is an article on epinephrine in dental freezing and how it can cause panic attacks (I was told adrenaline and I am not sure if teh they are the same thing - I know they are connected as far as treating allergic reactions) :

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/287103

Ah - this excerpt from the article explains epinephrine and adrenaline :

Epinephrine is added to dental anesthetics to increase their effectiveness. It works by shutting down the small blood vessels (which keeps the freezing in your gums longer). Anesthetics without it wear off much faster and you may feel pain before the procedure is done.
It is produced naturally in your body by the adrenal glands, and is involved in the fight-or-flight response that causes your body to do all kinds of uncomfortable things in preparation for an emergency situation, where you need to either run, or stand and fight. Here is an example: your neighbour's rottweilers are loose again and come charging at you, but stop two feet away and stand snarling and growling until their owner calls them off. A surge of adrenalin races through your body so you are 'on guard' for whatever happens next.

I think it might be an individual thing, not an aspie thing. I can't say for me because I am deathly allergic to most anesthetics (as are most people in my paternal family). My Mom is not on the spectrum, but probably BAP, and they can never give her enough--she wakes up during EVERY single surgery she has ever had. *shudder*

One time I had dental surgery and the anesthesia wore off twice during it.

Ever since then, if I have needed dental surgery, I have asked to be put to sleep for the procedure.

One time I had dental surgery, and would not wake up after the procedure. Local injections ever since.

Tried one filling without any, which felt little different to having the local anaesthetic, but it was just a small filling.

If you have surgery and don't wake up, you die, and depending on whether you are religious or not, either you never experience anything again or you go to heaven or you are reincarnated.

None of those seem particularly bad, and whatever happens would be something that I would experience anyway, just at a later date.

If you are awake when you have dental surgery and you start to feel it, it's very very bad. And you experience things that you don't want to experience. Have you ever had a bone graft? Do you know what it sounds like when they pull a piece of your skeleton off right under your ear? It sounds like cracking a lobster.

No. I would much rather be asleep.

When I was a child, gas was used regularly for dental procedures. I used to be really nauseous afterwards, for days on end. It's not used at all in dental surgeries now here and, if you need a general, you are admitted to hospital.

The last time I had a local anaesthetic was about 5 or 6 years ago. It was for a filling repair. I've always been fine with them before, but on this occasion, I felt really woozy and heard a weird noise. It was an almost identical sensation to when I've been drifting off, with a general anaesthetic. I think the dentist might have injected some of the local into my bloodstream. It was the scariest few minutes of my life and I thought it was possible that I might die.